Gene Wolfe Quotes

Perhaps I need to begin before I can think clearly about the task. The chief thing is to begin, after all—after which the chief thing is to finish.

When neither our fellows nor our gods spoil our plans, we spoil them ourselves.

He is not mad. He is only more clever than you. It is not the same.

A trooper fights for honor ... or from loyalty. Or for loot sometimes. But he waits for pay. He will not wait without it, because when there is no fighting there is no honor to win, no flag to die for, no loot to gain.

There are people who love birds so much they free them. There are others who love them so much they cage them.

What little I have learned in the course of a long life, regarding the gods, I have tried to forget.

The jokes of the gods are long in the telling.

When we're young, we notice things that are young, like ourselves. New grass on old graves. New leaves on old trees

Everyone who is grieved at anything, or discontented, is like a pig for sacrifice, kicking and squealing. Like a dove for sacrifice is he who laments in silence. Our one distinction is that it is given to us to consent, if we will, to the necessity imposed upon us.

There is more to be learned from any good teacher than the subject taught.

Action, you see, is the end that thought achieves. Action is its only purpose. What else is it good for? If we don't act, it's worthless.

As you intend to live hereafter, it is in your power to live here.

The best way to be thought honest is to be honest.

Any representation of a god is ultimately a lie, Silk explained. It may be a convenient lie, and it may even be a reverent one; but it's ultimately false. ... Neither image would be more nearly true than the other, or more true than any other—merely more appropriate.

You have need of learning, children, in order that the whorl will someday have need of you.