R. Scott Bakker Quotes

There was such a difference, he thought, between the beauty that illuminated, and the beauty that was illuminated.

Any fool can see the limits of seeing, but not even the wisest know the limits of knowing. Thus is ignorance rendered invisible, and are all Men made fools.

Here we find further argument for Gotagga’s supposition that the world is round. How else could all men stand higher than their brothers?

Faith is the truth of passion. Since no passion is more true than another, faith is the truth of nothing.

Though all men be equally frail before the world, the differences between them are terrifying.

Love is lust made meaningful. Hope is hunger made human.

I wanted a literate, socially intricate, and cosmopolitan world - something I could have fun destroying.

To indulge it is to breed it. To punish it is to feed it. Madness knows no bridle but the knife.

History. Language. Passion. Custom. All these things determine what men say, think, and do. These are the hidden puppet-strings from which all men hang.

Consequences lost all purchase when they became mad. And desperation, when pressed beyond anguish, became narcotic.

Complexity begets ambiguity, which yields in all ways to prejudice and avarice. Complication does not so much defeat Men as arm them with fancy.

Darkness shields as much as it threatens.

The world has long ceased to be the author of your anguish.

Something ... made him feel small, not in the way of orphans or beggars or children, but in a good way. In the way of souls.

Achamian tossed his hands skyward in dismay. “Foolish boy! How many faiths are there? How many competing beliefs? And you would murder another on the slender hope that yours is somehow the only one?

It is only after that we understand what has come before, then we understand nothing. Thus we shall define the soul as follows: that which precedes everything.

Saying 'I could have done more,' Zin, is what marks a man as a man and not a God.

He had despised the sorcerer, thinking him one of those mewling souls who forever groaned beneath burdens of their own manufacture.

If soot stains your tunic, dye it black. This is vengeance.

The world is only as deep as we can see. This is why fools think themselves profound. This is why terror is the passion of revelation.

Gods are but greater demons, the Cishaurim said, hungers across the surface of eternity, wanting only to taste the clarity of our souls. Can you not see this?

If the world is a game whose rules are written by the God, and sorcerers are those who cheat and cheat, then who has written the rules of sorcery?

The world is a big place and our brain is only three pounds.

What if the choice isn’t between certainties, between this faith and that, but between faith and doubt? Between renouncing the mystery and embracing it?

Beliefs are the foundation of actions. Those who believed without doubting, he would say, acted without thinking. And those who acted without thinking were enslaved.

Sometimes the Nonman would climb upon some wild pulpit, the mossed remains of a fallen tree, the humped back of a boulder, and paint wonders with his dark voice. Wonders and horrors both.

Doubt begets understanding, and understanding begets compassion. Verily, it is conviction that kills.

Where no paths exist, a man strays only when he misses his destination. There is no crime, no transgression, no sin save foolishness or incompetence, and no obscenity save the tyranny of custom.

Gods are but greater demons, " the Cishaurim said, "hungers across the surface of eternity, wanting only to taste the clarity of our souls. Can you not see this?

There was nothing the ignorant prized more than the ignorance of others.

Hoga Gothyelk no longer felt anger, not truly -- only varieties of sorrow.

Saying 'I could have done more, ' Zin, is what marks a man as a man and not a God.