The Rise of Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, #4)

by Dan Simmons

“Jesus of Nazareth entered the Void Which Binds.

The whales all decided to die out after that; it was not the hunting of them for food and oil that killed them, but the destruction of their songs.”

And I would choose her and she would choose me again tomorrow, and the tomorrow after that, and in every hour during those tomorrows.

“There are no ghosts, my love. Death is final. The soul is that ineffable combination of memory and personality which we carry through life … when life departs, the soul also dies. Except for what we leave in the memory of those who loved us.”

“Aye, on the shores of darkness there is light, And precipices show untrodden green; There is a budding morrow in midnight; There is triple sight in blindness keen …”