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Gene Wolfe
92 quotes
“When a tree is very old, yet still lives, sometimes the limbs are strangely twisted.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" (1970), Orbit 7, ed. Damon Knight; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (1980); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Wolfe Archipe…
“No man has a home unless he is master of a place where he must please no one—a place where he can go and lock the door behind him.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Slaves of Silver", Galaxy, 1971; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Storeys from the Old Hotel (1988)
“That the environment should respond to human thought. That is the core of magic and the oldest dream of mankind.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Death of Doctor Island” in Universe 3 (1973), ed. Terry Carr, p. 17 (reprinted in Nebula Award Stories 9, p. 19)
“It will help her if she wants to be helped; if she insists on clasping her illness to her it will not.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Death of Doctor Island” in Universe 3 (1973), ed. Terry Carr, p. 31 (reprinted in Nebula Award Stories 9, p. 34)
“Evolution teaches us, Nicholas, that the original purpose of language was to ritualize men’s threats and curses, his spells to compel the gods; communication came later.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Death of Doctor Island” in Universe 3 (1973), ed. Terry Carr, p. 37; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Wolfe Archipelago (1983); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
“They based their extrapolations on numbers. That worked as long as money, which is easily measured numerically, was the principle motivating force in human affairs. But as time progressed, human actions became responsive instead to a multitude of incommensurable vectors.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton", Universe 7 (1977), ed. Terry Carr; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Storeys from the Old Hotel (1988); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
“An exaggerated and solemn respect always indicates a loss of faith.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Seven American Nights", Orbit 20 (1978), ed. Damon Knight; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (1980); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
“Time passed, slipping through the waist of the universe's great hourglass like the eroded soil of this continent slipping down her rivers to the seas.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Seven American Nights", Orbit 20 (1978), ed. Damon Knight; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (1980); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
“She often spoke of marryin' a butcher or a sausage maker, having a liking for those trades, as she said, for they knew you couldn't never get all the stains from their aprons, and didn't demand it.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Our Neighbor by David Copperfield", Future Tense (1978), ed. Lee Harding; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Endangered Species (1989)
“We can dive to the bottom of the sea and some say NASA will fly us to the stars, and I have known men to plunge into the past—or the future—and drown. But there's one place where we can't go. We can't go where we are already. We can't go home, because our minds, and our hearts, and our immortal souls are already there.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kevin Malone", New Terrors (1980), ed. Ramsey Campbell; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Endangered Species (1989); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
“The only actors who can really do justice to their parts are the ones who don't know what they are.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kevin Malone", New Terrors (1980), ed. Ramsey Campbell; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Endangered Species (1989); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
“In the marketplace he told of honor, and how it is a higher law than any law. At the crossroads he talked of freedom, the freedom of the wind and clouds, and freedom that loves all things and is without guilt. Beside the city gates he told stories of the forgotten cities that were and of the forgotten cities that might be, if only men would forget them.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The God and His Man", Asimov's Science Fiction (1980); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Endangered Species (1989); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
“Nobody bothers crazy people. [...] In the end, maybe it's the crazy people who win after all.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Adopted Father", Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (1980); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe's Book of Days (1981); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992)
“Very small, child, are the flying days of love, and men and women must catch them when they can, if they are to know love at all.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Empires of Foliage and Flower" (1987), first appeared as a limited edition chapbook from Cheap Street; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
“He was proud, like all lonely men. Lonely men must be proud or die.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Arimaspin Legacy" (1987), first appeared as a Winter Solstice chapbook from Cheap Street; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
“Prince of parable, I desire to see those gardens of lasting delight which Allah—the Creator! the Ever Beneficent!—reserves for the faithful. How am I to do so if I tell lies?" "By lying to Allah, I suppose.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Tale of the Rose and the Nightingale (and What Came of It)", Arabesques (1988), ed. Susan Schwartz. Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Endangered Species (1989)
“People who wish to be lost always get their way.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun", Grails, Quests, Visitations, and Other Occurrences (1992), ed. Richard Gilliam, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Edward E. Kramer; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Innocents Aboard (2004)
“A hundred wise men have said in various ways that love transcends the power of death, and millions of fools have supposed that they meant nothing by it. At this late hour in my life I have learned what they meant. They meant that love transcends death. They are correct.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bed and Breakfast", Dante's Disciples (1995), ed. Edward E. Kramer; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Strange Travelers (2000); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
“Legend declares that at the christening of our family’s founder a somewhat deaf fairy who had been asked to render him and his descendants mettlesome, made us meddlesome instead.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Death of Koshchei the Deathless (1995) in Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears, , p. 186
“I have never in my whole life had a fight with a smart person or even seen anybody else have one either. That is because when the fight starts the smart people are not there anymore. They have gone off someplace else, and when it is over they come back and tell you how much they did in the fight, only it is all lies.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon?", Moon Shots (1999), ed. Peter Crowther; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005); reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
“Every theory is true in some discipline. The beauty of this is that it carries its own confirmation.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Glory like Their Star", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2001; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
“People who get eyeball arthritis see only what they're supposed to see, like that TV screen.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hunter Lake", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2003; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
“Could he have murdered a child? He decided that he could not, but that he could certainly have been accused of having done it and worse. Anyone these days—any man, particularly—could be accused of anything by anyone.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Of Soil and Climate (2003). Originally published in Realms of Fantasy (December 2003). Reprinted in David G. Hartwell (ed.) Year’s Best Fantasy 4 (p. 431).
“People who fear death live no longer than those who don't, and live scared.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Wizard Knight (2004), Volume 1: The Knight, Ch. 62
“There is no human quality more attractive than the courage of the weak.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Home Fires (2011), Reflection 1
“God is love" "Love is blind" If these be true, then God is blind: Simple logic would appear to have escaped the theologians. Res ipsa loquitur, love is not blind, neither God's love nor man's, though we all wish at times to escape God's eye, and though it must at times appear that the lover cannot see what we see—unless, of course, we are ourselves that lover. Like God, the lover sees but forgives.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Home Fires (2011), Reflection 2
“A child, not knowing what is extraordinary and what is commonplace, usually lights midway between the two, finds interest in incidents adults consider beneath notice, and calmly accepts the most improbable occurrences.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It doesn't move because he has fastened it in place until he finds out why it doesn't move.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the questions whose answers we seek is why we seek.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now I must, I suppose, explain why I have been writing this account. [...] I have written to disclose myself to myself, and I am writing now because I will, I know, sometime read what I am now writing and wonder. Perhaps by the time I do, I will have solved the mystery of myself, or perhaps I will no longer care to know the solution.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You’re a poet too, aren’t you? And a good liar, I bet.” “I was the Autarch of Urth; that required a little lying, if you like. We called it diplomacy.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was the core of the universe, as we always are to ourselves.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most trivial skirmish is not trivial to those who die in it, and so should not be trivial in any ultimate sense to us.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who have never fought suppose that the deserter who flies the field is consumed by shame. He is not, or he would not desert; with only trifling exceptions, battles are fought by cowards afraid to run.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I pledged myself to show you wonders.” I drew her farther from the building. “I’m not ready to see wonders. Yours, or any other woman’s.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yours is a race of pawns,” Tzadkiel told me. “You move forward only, unless we move you back to begin the game again. But not all the pieces on the board are pawns.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Until we reach the end of time, we don’t know whether something’s been good or bad; we can only judge the intentions of those who acted.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You’re called a holy man,” she said. “I see you’re wholly deranged.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s easy—very easy—to slay a ruler. But it’s very difficult to prevent a worse one from coming to his place.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is perceived is dictated by the instrument. If you had other eyes, or another mind, you would see all things otherwise.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He is indeed a creature of evil; but so are you, and so am I.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We never really got married. When we both wanted to we never had the money, somehow. And when we had the money, there was always some kind of quarrel. After a couple of years everybody thought we were married anyway.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can only hope.” “That’s like the frog said when he seen the stork.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men build scales, but the gods blow upon the lighter pan.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Volume 1: Nightside the Long Sun (1993), Ch. 1
“The gods smile on us, my son, or so it is written. It's a wonder they don't laugh aloud.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have need of learning, children, in order that the whorl will someday have need of you.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The best way to be thought honest is to be honest.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As you intend to live hereafter, it is in your power to live here.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Volume 2: Lake of the Long Sun (1994), Ch. 1
“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.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source