His Dark Materials Quotes

“As for what it's against - the story is against those who pervert and misuse religion, or any other kind of doctrine with a holy book and a priesthood and an apparatus of power that wields unchallengeable authority, in order to dominate and suppress human freedoms.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Out of the little grove, away from the baffled Spectres, out of the valley, past the mighty form of his old companion the armour-clad bear, the last little scrap of the consciousness that had been the aëronaut Lee Scoresby floated upwards, just as his great balloon had done so many times. Untroubled by the flares and the bursting shells, deaf to the explosions and the shouts and cries of anger and warning and pain, conscious only of his movement upwards, the last of Lee Scoresby passed through the heavy clouds and came out under the brilliant stars, where the atoms of his beloved dæmon Hester were waiting for him.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“He said, "Lyra, gal, it won't be long now. When you see that old bear, you tell him Lee went out fighting. And when the battle's over, there'll be all the time in the world to drift along the wind and find the atoms that used to be Hester, and my mother in the sagelands, and my sweethearts – all my sweethearts... Lyra, child, you rest when this is done, you hear? Life is good, and death is over...”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Serafina said, 'Have you been married, Mr Scoresby? Have you any children?'
'No, ma'am, I have no child, though I would have liked to be a father. But I understand your question, and you're right: that little girl has had bad luck with her true parents, and maybe I can make it up to her. Someone has to do it, and I'm willing.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“There's been terrible things we seen, en't there? And more a-coming, more'n likely. So I think I'd rather not know what's in the future. I'll stick to the present.'
'Yeah,' said Lyra wearily. 'There's times I feel like that too.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“When you're young, you do think that things last for ever. Unfortunately, they don't.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if were are not", said the witch, "or die of despair.”
― Philip pullman, His Dark Materials

“Was there only one world, after all, that spent its time dreaming of others?”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“I remember. He meant the kingdom was over, the kingdom of heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn’t live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Well now,” the Master went on. “We must think about your future, Lyra.”
His words made her shiver. She gathered herself and sat up. “All the time I was away,” Lyra said, “I never thought about that. All I thought about was just the time I was in, just the present. There were plenty of times when I thought I didn’t have a future at all. And now… Well, suddenly finding I’ve got a whole life to live, but no… but no idea what to do with it, well, it’s like having the alethiometer but no idea how to read it.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Well, this is a mystery,” said Farder Coram, “and I’m glad I lived long enough to see it. To go into the dark of death is a thing we all fear, say what we like, we fear it. But if there’s a way out for that part of us that has to go down there, then it makes my heart lighter.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“I will love you for ever, whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead I’ll drift about for ever, all my atoms, till I find you again…”
“I’ll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again we’ll cling together so tight that nothing and no one’ll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you… We’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams… And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we’ll be joined so tight…”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“What work have I got to do, then?” said Will, but went on at once, “No, on second thoughts, don’t tell me. I shall decide what I do. If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatever you might say, I’ll always be thinking about it, and if I do end up doing that I’ll be resentful because it’ll feel as if I didn’t have a choice, and if I don’t do it, I’ll feel guilty because I should. Whatever I do, I will choose it, no on else.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“When you stopped believing in God,” he went on, “did you stop believing in good and evil?”
“No. But I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone, or that’s an evil one, because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Tell them stories. That’s what we didn’t know. All this time, and we never knew! But they need the truth. That’s what nourishes them. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, everything. Just tell them stories.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Will said to his father’s ghost, “You said I was a warrior. You told me that was my nature, and I shouldn’t argue with it. Father, you were wrong. I fought because I had to. I can’t choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose, because now I’m free.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“I lied and lied, Asriel… Let’s not wait too long, I can’t bear it… We won’t live, will we? We won’t survive like the ghosts?”
“Not if we fall into the abyss. We came here to give Lyra time to find her dæmon, and then time to live and grow up. If we take Metatron to extinction, Marisa, she’ll have that time, and if we go with him, it doesn’t matter.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“One day," said the harpy, "I will see you again, Lyra Silvertongue."
"And if I know you're here, I shan't be afraid," Lyra said. "Goodbye, Gracious Wings, till I die.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“I can't bear the thought of oblivion, Asriel," she continued. "Sooner anything than that. I used to think pain would be worse – to be tortured for ever – I thought that must be worse... But as long as you were conscious, it would be better, wouldn't it? Better than feeling nothing, just going into the dark, everything going out for ever and ever?”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“When we were alive, they told us that when we died we'd go to heaven. And they said that heaven was a place of joy and glory and we would spend eternity in the company of saints and angels praising the Almighty, in a state of bliss. That's what they said. And that's what led some of us to give our lives, and others to spend years in solitary prayer, while all the joy of life was going to waste around us, and we never knew.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“And we have the right to refuse to guide them if they lie, or if they hold anything back, or if they have nothing to tell us. If they live in the world, they should see and touch and hear and love and learn things. We shall make an exception for infants who have not had time to learn anything, but otherwise, if they come down here bringing nothing, we shall not guide them out.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“There's some that came here never believing they were dead. They insisted all the way that they were alive, it was a mistake, someone would have to pay; made no difference. There's others who longed to be dead when they were alive, poor souls; lives full of pain or misery; killed themselves for a chance of a blessed rest, and found that nothing had changed except for the worse, and this time there was no escape; you can't make yourself alive again. And there's been others so frail and sickly, little infants, sometimes, that they're scarcely born into the living before they come down to the dead. I've rowed this boat with a little crying baby on my lap many, many times, that never knew the difference between up there and down here. And old folk too, the rich ones are the worst, snarling and savage and cursing me, railing and screaming: what did I think I was? Hadn't they gathered and saved all the gold they could garner? Wouldn't I take some now, to put them back ashore? They'd have the law on me, they had powerful friends, they knew the Pope and the King of this and the Duke of that, they were in a position to see I was punished and chastised... But they knew what the truth was in the end: the only position they were in was in my boat going to the land of the dead, and as for those kings and popes, they'd be in here too, in their turn, sooner than they wanted. I let 'em cry and rave; they can't hurt me; they fall silent in the end.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Everyone wishes they could speak again to those who've gone to the land of the dead.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Your death taps you on the shoulder, or takes your hand, and says, come along o' me, it's time. It might happen when you're sick with a fever, or when you choke on a piece of dry bread, or when you fall off a high building; in the middle of your pain and travail, your death comes to you kindly and says easy now, easy, child, you come along o' me, and you go with them in a boat out across the lake into the mist. What happens there, no one knows. No one's ever come back.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“I love him so much, Will!" she managed to whisper shakily. "And he looked old! He looked hungry and old and sad... Is it all coming on to us now, Will? We can't rely on anyone else now, can we... It's just us. But we en't old enough yet. We're only young... We're too young... If poor Mr Scoresby's dead and Iorek's old... It's all coming on to us, what's got to be done.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Can is not the same as must."
"But if you must and you can, then there's no excuse.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“People don't like the uncanny, and rather than look fully at something disturbing, they'll avoid it altogether.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Poor Hester, she was lying now, not crouching tense and watchful as she'd done all his adult life. And her beautiful gold-brown eyes were growing dull.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“Just tell me before you go," said Lee, "because I won't be easy till I know. What side I'm fighting for I cain't tell, and I don't greatly care. Just tell me this: what I'm a-going to do now, is that going to help that little girl Lyra, or harm her?"
"It's going to help her," said Grumman.
"And your oath. You won't forget what you swore to me?"
"I won't forget."
"Because, Dr Grumman, or John Parry, or whatever name you take up in whatever world you end in, you be aware of this. I love that little child like a daughter. If I'd had a child of my own, I couldn't love her more. And if you break the oath, whatever remains of me will pursue whatever remains of you, and you'll spend the rest of eternity wishing you never existed. That's how important that oath is.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

“For a human being, nothing comes naturally,' said Grumman. 'We have to learn everything we do.”
― Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials