Nightwings Quotes

“Having lost our present and our future, we had of necessity to bend all our endeavors to the past, which no one could take from us if only we were vigilant enough.”
― Robert Silverberg, Nightwings

“Earth fell,” said the Surgeon, “because the Will required us to atone for the sin our ancestors committed when they treated your ancestors like beasts. The quality of our poetry had nothing to do with it.”
― Robert Silverberg, Nightwings

“You see the difficulty of believing in a divine force that determines all events? Where is the element of choice that makes suffering meaningful? To force you into a sin, and then to require you to endure defeat as atonement, seems to me an empty exercise.”
― Robert Silverberg, Nightwings

“Sometimes one does not learn the value of things until they are lost.”
― Robert Silverberg, Nightwings

“There are other themes for poetry besides immersion in the Will, my friends. The love of person for person, the joy of defending one’s home, the wonder of standing naked beneath the fiery stars—” The invader laughed. “Can it be that Earth fell so swiftly because its only poets were poets of acquiescence to destiny?”
― Robert Silverberg, Nightwings

“It was as though our invaders had passed the word through the galaxies: SEE OLD EARTH NOW UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.”
― Robert Silverberg, Nightwings

“For Harlan, to remind him of open windows, the currents of the Delaware River, quarters with two heads, and other pitfalls.”
― Robert Silverberg, Nightwings