Kage Baker Quotes

Did you know what would happen next? Did you know and sit there like God, silent, remorseless, useless?

Ah, Los Angeles. One disaster after another, always has been.

It didn’t matter that they were terrible at being parents; they were also very rich, which meant they could pay other people to love Alec.

The awful bottom line, of course, is that if you’re going to rule the world, you have to have absolute power, and everybody knows what absolute power does.

Do you remember that terrible moment, señors, when the self-righteousness of your youth died? When all the stern warnings of your elders, ignored until the consequences abruptly came crashing down on your head, made you see in a flash that the warnings hadn’t been unfair or mean-spirited or blind, they’d been right? All along your elders had been trying to tell you about the black joke that is life, trying to help you and save you from pain. But you insisted on running straight into the trap, mocking them as you ran, to the agony that was irreversible and permanent, with no one to blame, finally, but yourself.
It’s not good to see yourself in the mirror then.

“Why did I never understand...”
“That it was vanity?” I said.
“Mm, but so much worse...Delusion. Because, the thing is—human progress begins, not with one lone man with a weapon, however heroic. Nor with subtle governments, be they never so altruistic. It begins with a man and his wife in bed...and...how could I ever hope to govern humanity, without having been even that human?

Consigned to everlasting fire, said Nicholas in a faint voice. He had gone white as chalk.
No, you medieval imbecile! Edward clenched his fists. You still have no grasp of the truth, have you? Leave your angels and devils in the trash of history, where they belong.

Ah, the immortal ocean.
Consider the instructive metaphor: every conceivable terror dwells in her depths; she receives all wreckage, refuse, corruption of every kind, she pulls down into her depths human calamity indescribable; but none of this is any consideration to the sea. Let the screaming mortal passengers fight for room in the lifeboats, as the wreck belches flame and settles below the extinguishing wave; next morning she’ll still be beautiful and serene, her combers no less white, her distances as blue, her seabirds no less graceful as they wheel in the pure air. What perfection, to be so heartless. An inspiration to any lesser immortal.

It was growing dusk, the blue hour when solid things take on a certain transparency and phantoms become palpable.

Doubtless he was going to start bragging about being a god. It went with the profile of this sort of lunatic.

They find us outlandish, Lopez admitted. Extravagant. Eclectic. Unfathomable.

Very shortly the temple was once again a wonder of the world, and the Ephesian Church settled down to a long reign marked only by the usual bitter quarrels, heresies, and internal dissent through which all major faiths struggle.
Any religion begins in a moment of transforming truth. That moment quickly shatters into falsehood and shame and stagecraft, bitter comedy, sometimes murder. Thieves catch hold of any chance for power. The early years of a faith are best not too closely examined by its faithful.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any stranger, I was proven wrong.

Like children, they're bored by complicated things. More than bored: they feel threatened. Give a child mashed potatoes and butter, and he's happy. He doesn't want to try the rich sauce with capers, in fact he'll cry if he's forced to taste it. You see what I mean?
But, listen, Joseph. A child is easy to control. Keep him happy, and he'll believe what he's told to believe.

The same intact culture that made them good businessmen also made many of them lousy parents.