The Blight of Muirwood Quotes

“It is a cruel fact, child. Wisdom comes after the moment when it is most needed.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“What is allowed us is disagreeable, what is denied us causes intense desire.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“The hunter is patient. The prey is careless.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“There is no anger above the anger of a woman. For her thoughts are more vast than the sea, and her counsels more deep than the great ocean.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“I do not need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“He who is not prepared today, will be less so tomorrow.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“The greatest power over a man is his desire to please a particular woman.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“While the Medium reveals itself in many forms and can come as a dramatic manifestation, it usually does not. Some mastons think they need to experience the full, raw power of the Medium before they are convinced of its possibilities. If we have unrealistic notions of how, when, or where the Medium reveals itself, we risk missing the tokens which come as quiet, reassuring feelings and thoughts while we are doing something else. These simple manifestations of the Medium can be equally convincing and powerful as the dramatic ones. Over time, we learn how this works. It is something each maston learns for himself.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also, that which it fears. So often we bring into our lives that which would ruin us merely by thinking and fearing it.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things, which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little. Many tyrants have sat on a throne, and those whom no man would think on, have worn crowns.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“Like fragile ice, anger passes away in time. Therefore, the greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“In every era there comes a moment when the collective thoughts, whims, and motivations of a people become so self-absorbed, so malignant, so unheeding that nature itself revolts. Man scars the land such that it finally rebels against him. As thoughts can spread despair and death like seedlings of weeds strewn by the wind, so they eventually draw the Gardener to pluck them out. The vetches must be pulled, roots and all. When this happens, the Medium ceases to bless, and instead, it curses. Instead of healing, it spews poison. It happens swiftly and terribly. The ancients gave it a name, this culling process that blackens the world. They named it after a wasting disease that occurs in once-healthy groves of trees. They called it the Blight.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“Where weeds are sown, weeds grow.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to ourselves.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“The worse a person is, the less he feels it.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“Imagine, if you will, that the sum of all human thoughts could be represented on a measuring scale. The thoughts of a powerful maston, one enabled by the Medium to his fullest potential, could each be represented by a gold coin on one side. Imagine then, that all of the evil, uncontrolled, vengeful thoughts have the weight of chaff and try to tip the scales. The world is a granary of ill-bred thoughts. There is enough to weigh down the world, to bury each one of us alive. Yet if we have enough of the good, it balances it out or keeps it firmly in the cause of right. Imagine, then, scales the size of a kingdom. How many gold coins are there compared with chaff? Enough—just enough. There is enough weight and enough strength to keep the scales balanced. But if you begin to remove the gold coins, one by one? Then every seed of evil matters. Every little seed begins to tip the scales. As long as the scales are balanced to the side of the mastons, the Medium blesses everyone—both the evil and the good. But if the balance is altered, if the weight of the wrong begins to exceed the weight of the right, it triggers the Blight to purge the chaff. It is a warning from the Medium. There are curses that follow.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“A burden which is done well becomes light.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“I do not need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. Sometimes silence, at the proper season, is wisdom and better than any speech. —”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“Just as the lamp burns bright when wick and oil are clean, so is it with our minds. All things can corrupt when minds are prone to evil. A soft word of praise benignly intended can wreak havoc on one whose ears itch to hear it. So often, we are pulled and strung along by our feelings, led to this mischief and that because we crave a fleeting emotion. Our simmering anger needs but a nudge to flame up and scald everyone around us. Yet when our thoughts are pure, we become a light by which others learn to read. —”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“We are more wicked together than separately. If you are ever forced to be in a crowd, then most of all you should withdraw into yourself.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“To the person who does not know where he wants to go, there is no favorable wind.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“Most people ebb and flow in torment between the fear of death and the hardship of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet, they do not know how to die. Rehearse death. To say this is to tell a maston to rehearse his freedom. A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave to fear. He is above, or at any rate, beyond the reach of all political powers.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“Will you live in piety toward the Essaios? Will you observe justice toward all men? Will you do no harm to any one unless the Medium commands you? Will you always hate the Myriad Ones, oppose them in all things, and assist the righteous causes? Will you live a life of purity and forsake every pleasure except with your husband? Will you show fidelity to all mastons, and especially Aldermastons in authority? If you become an Aldermaston, will you at no time whatsoever abuse your authority, nor endeavor to outshine the learners either in your garments, your speech, or any other finery? Will you be perpetually a lover and speaker of truth and reprove those that speak falsehoods? Will you will keep your hands clear from theft, and your soul from unlawful gains? Will you never discover any of these doctrines to others, even should anyone should compel you so to do at the hazard of your life? Will you preserve the tomes belonging to the mastons? Will you safeguard the names of the Essaios and those who visit your world from Idumea? Will you shun the enticings of Ereshkigal and her hetaera and qualify yourself to receive a new body and return to the world of Idumea?”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest, as well as the keenest, dispositions discovered in the heart of any maston. These dispositions must all be repressed. In playacting, as in the ancient days of Idumea, the applause of the audience is of more importance to the jongleur than their own approbation. But upon the shabby stage of this life, while conscience claps, let the world hiss.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“I do not need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. Sometimes silence, at the proper season, is wisdom and better than any speech.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“Just as the lamp burns bright when wick and oil are clean, so is it with our minds.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“We should live as if we were in public view, and think, too, as if someone could peer into the inmost recesses of our hearts. The Blight which assails us is not in the localities we inhabit but in ourselves. We are more wicked together than separately. If you are ever forced to be in a crowd, then most of all you should withdraw into yourself. Never trust another to do your thinking.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood