Disquiet Gods Quotes

“Pain teaches mercy,” I said. “You suffer so that you understand suffering, so that you do not inflict it without need. Pain makes us human, teaches us to be . . . human.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Your road will not be easy, nor your burden light."
"That does not matter," I said. "It must be.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Our fear of pain is the foundation of all morality. It is that fear that shapes our world, orders civilization. We pass laws, build walls and fortresses, fight wars and forge empires all to minimize our people’s pain. That is why it is the lowest form of obedience, not because it is basest—as I once answered when asked by Tor Gibson—but because it is foundational. Our experiences of pain teach us the nature of suffering, and so we are moved to minimize that suffering in others. Pain grounds our reality, is the cornerstone of our interactions with the objective world.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“but a man is not the sum of his memories, but much more. A man is a story, a thread winding back through time from death to conception, an unbroken line—save where the powers of our universe intervene. A man is neither body nor soul, but a soul incarnate.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“It is not power that builds empires, that asserts order on the stars.
It is vision. Vision and the heroic will to act.
Where there is that vision, all else follows.
Where it is not, there is decadence, desperation, and decay.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“That devil has long escaped its bottle”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Reputations are lies of consensus.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Do not despair, Child of Earth. His victory is certain.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“And we should not suffer evil to endure.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“We are beasts of burden, we men. We struggle, and by that struggle are filled.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“The Chantry was right, had been right all along. The machines were devils. What was a machine intelligence? A pattern of electrical energy, of light and pure force, independent of its container.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Do you not see now wherefore your coming is to us as the footsteps of doom?” She said this last in Classical English, and I recognized the phrase. “Tolkien,” I said.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“You cannot wash away a tiger’s stripes, Lorian had said. You can only be eaten by it, or ride. I had chosen to ride.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Man is not matter, but a phenomenon, a wave crashing across the unpastured universe. A force. And that force was unchanged. That force was me.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Evil anywhere harms good everywhere.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“She was only Tavrosi.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Have I not said that freedom is like the sea? That a man may swim in any direction he chooses, but all he will do in that sea is drown.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“I was nothing at all.
The barest drop in a limitless ocean.
One photon against the infinite Dark.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“You installed a second telegraph in each one, one that connected to you here.” “Yes,” Kharn said. “You do not seriously think I would offer such a thing without benefit to myself. I ensured that I would know where every one of their fleets was at all times. For my own safety.” “And in return,” I said, “they built your engines. Dorayaica built them.” “So my brother told you that much, at least,” she said. “You tricked them,” I said. “You sold them the means to build an empire, but what you were really building was for yourself.” “I have received their every transmission. Every message. Every threat. Everything they have said to one another on my machines since the beginning. I received the summons Dorayaica sent to all the princes. I heard him declare himself king, and sent my congratulations. He believes me one of his servants, a fiction I have allowed to persist.” More laughter. The milky, black eyes grew wide. “Sleep with the Devil, and then you must pay . . .” I could not believe it. “You could have given us this at any time,” I said. “We might have ended this war a thousand years ago, before it had a chance to truly begin. How many lives were lost because of your silence? Your caprice? How many billion lives?” “I told you,” Kharn said, “when last you darkened my door: Mankind is nothing to me. The Cielcin are nothing. I have other concerns.” “Your own immortal life.” “I am as old as your civilization,” she said. “I was born in Omelah, on New Ithaca—a planet that no longer exists. I slew the last of the Mericanii, the true Mericanii, here on Vorgossos. I have warred with three of your Emperors across the ages—though that is forgotten. It was I who made first contact with the Cielcin. I am history, Marlowe. Should I be destroyed?”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Oh no,” he said. “There is much that endures. That is the joy of it. My memories are the same, my sensibilities, my reason. The implants house the core of who I am, but they must interact with the brain of each new vessel. Each resulting incarnation is a kind of blending. One cannot duplicate a human brain precisely—not in flesh and blood. That was how I began. Trying. My first several scions were genetic duplicates, but each emerged a little different, and in time, I abandoned similitude entirely.” He withdrew a step. “I have been everything you can imagine at one time or another.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“If what I have done disturbs you”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Our fear of pain is the foundation of all morality. It is that fear that shapes our world”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Pain teaches mercy,” I said. “You suffer so that you understand suffering”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Do we tolerate our suffering only because we come into it gradually?”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Kharn Sagara was evil. I say it plain. And we should not suffer evil to endure.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Doubtless you think me a hypocrite”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“We are storming Eden,” he said. “My Eden”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“You cost me my home”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“History only repeats itself because human nature never changes,” Edouard said. “We think we’ve come so far”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods

“Hadrian Marlowe”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Disquiet Gods