Matthew Stover Quotes

He had no idea what he should do now. Without destiny to guide him, he was lost in a vast, whistling darkness. Any direction he might choose was purely abitary; it would make no more sense, offer no more hope, than would sitting still. Which offered neither sense nor hope at all.

His destiny had betrayed him, had made him a destroyer on a scale that humbled even Caine. Destiny, he understood with bitter certainty, could not be trusted.

Only human, after all.

Caine was no longer the icon of evil, the Enemy of God, the author of all the world's ills. He had become simply what he was: a ruthless, amoral man, now beaten--crushed by the world, just like any other.

...I suspect that pain means little to you as your life--but both your life and your pain are very important to me.

Reasons are for peasants.

The man did not move because only immobility could hurt more than motion: the man held himself still because to move might lessen his suffering, and that he could not bear. For him only pain had meaning.

(XI.6) Del Rey, p. 404

He did understand. Finally, fatally, he did. He had thought he was the master of history, that his fractal world-tree had grown according to his will. He had allowed himself to be deceived.

(X.6) Del Rey, p. 380

All true stories end in death.

Maybe. A powerful. Enough. Metaphor. Grows. Its own. Truth.

A religion that teaches you God is something outside the world--something separate from everything you see, smell, taste, touch, and hear--is nothing but a cheap hustle.

(V.8) Del Rey, p. 214

Life is mere chance only when one allows it to be.