Michael Moorcock Quotes

Despairingly, sometimes, I seek the comfort of a benign god, Shaarilla. My mind goes out, lying awake at night, searching through black barrenness for something—anything—which will take me to it, warm me, protect me, tell me that there is order in the chaotic tumble of the universe; that it is consistent, this precision of the planets, not simply a brief, bright spark of sanity in an eternity of malevolent anarchy."
Elric sighed and his quiet tones were tinged with hopelessness. "Without some confirmation of the order of things, my only comfort is to accept the anarchy. This way, I can revel in chaos and know, without fear, that we are doomed from the start—that our brief existence is both meaningless and damned. I can accept, then, that we are more than forsaken, because there was never anything there to forsake us. I have weighed the proof, Shaarilla, and must believe that anarchy prevails, in spite of all the laws which seemingly govern our actions, our sorcery, our logic. I see only chaos in the world. If the book we seek tells me otherwise, then I shall gladly believe it. Until then, I will put my trust only in my sword and myself.

Intelligence and power were never the same thing," murmurs the Rose, departing from her own train of thought for a moment. "Frequently a lust for power is nothing more than an impulse of the stupidly baffled who cannot understand why they have been treated so badly by Dame Fortune. Who can blame those brutes, sometimes? They are outraged by random Nature. Perhaps the gods feel the same? Perhaps they make us endure such awful trials because they know we are actually superior to them? Perhaps they have become senile and forget the point of their old truces?"
"You speak truth in one area, madam," said Elric. "Nature distributes power with about the same lack of discrimination as she distributes intelligence or beauty or wealth, indeed!"
"Which is why mankind," says Wheldrake, revealing a little of his own background, "has a duty to correct such mistakes of justice that Nature makes.

We are content here. None starves or goes in need of anything. There was no reason for the unrest. So we are victims of powers beyond our control, are we? I like not that—whether it be Law or Chaos. I would prefer to remain neutral…"
"Aye," said Jhary-a-Conel. "Any thinking man does in these conflicts. Yet there are times when sides must be taken lest all that one loves is destroyed. I have never known another answer to the problem, though the taking of an extreme position will always make a man lose something of his humanity.

But regret was useless now, so he forgot it.

Can we break such a law? If we do break our ancient laws, are our customs worth fighting for?”

Only Law could create such perfection and, Elric thought, such perfection defeated progress. That the twin forces complemented one another was now plainer than ever before, and for either to gain complete ascendancy over the other meant entropy or stagnation for the cosmos. Even though Law might dominate the Earth, Chaos must be present, and vice versa.

In an infinite universe, all may become real sooner or later. Yet it is always up to mankind to make real what it really wishes to be real.

Petersburg socialism seems cold to the likes of our Cossacks, who would rather worship personalities than embrace ideas."
I shared his irony. "You make them sound like Americans.

My instinct shouted “Conspiracy” but my head reasoned “Coincidence”.

Better the myth of happiness," Harlequin murmured, "than the myth of despair.

All Empires fall,
All ages die,
All strife shall be in vain.
All Kings go down,
All hope must fail,
But Tanelorn remains—
Our Tanelorn remains...

It is a dilemma known to all men, perhaps," Rackhir said. "At least to some degree."
"Aye—to wonder what purpose there is to one's existence and what point there is to purpose, even if it should be discovered.

I do not know. That is the only real truth, Shaarilla. I do not know.

At last the computer had superseded the automobile as the focus for mankind’s hopes and fears.

You fail to understand, my friend. We do not control time. If anything, it controls us. We simply measure it.