Highcastle Quotes

“The horse respects and obeys man because its large eyes magnify everything, so man appears much larger than the horse itself.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“For what are myths if not the imposing of order on phenomena that do not possess order in themselves? And all myths, however they differ from philosophical systems and scientific theories, share this with them, that they negate the principle of randomness in the world.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“Of the two powers, the two categories that take possession of us when we enter the world, space is by far the less mysterious. . . . Space is, after all, solid, monolithic. . . . Time, on the other hand, is a hostile element, truly treacherous, I would say even against human nature.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“I should acquaint the reader with the basic principles of the mythology I adhered to then. I believed . . . that inanimate objects were no less fallible than people. They, too, could be forgetful. And, if you had enough patience, you could catch them by surprise.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“In the past an artist produced things that were necessary socially; they were instruments, albeit of a special kind, that helped the dead reach eternity, spells to be cast, prayers to be liturgically fleshed. . . . The aesthetic component of those instruments enhanced their function but was never central, never an independent, nonutilitarian thing.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“We come into this world trusting that things are as we see them, that what our senses witness is happening, but later it turns out, somehow, that children grow up and grownups start to die.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“There I could look at heads cut open in various ways, innumerable ways, the whole machinery drawn and colored with the utmost precision. I especially loved the pictures of brains, whose different coils were distinguished by every color of the rainbow. Many years later, when in an anatomy lab I saw a real brain for the first time, I was surprised (though of course I knew better) that it was so drab a thing.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“Society did what it could, through its educational system, to turn me into a human being. Did I resist? Not much as an individual — more as a member of the student body.
On this subject the most outstanding writers of the world have said things that cannot be surpassed. They have shown school as a complex game, a battle of opposing interests, where the teacher, representing authority and power, attempts to pack the maximum information into the students' heads, while the students, by nature the weaker side, do their best to avoid that information.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“For what are myths if not the imposing of order on phenomena that do not possess order in themselves. And all myths however they differ from philosophical systems and scientific theories, share this with them, that they negate the principle of randomness in the world.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“I was Mowgli, of course, and Winnetou, and Captain Nemo.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“Of the two powers, the two categories that take possession of us when we enter the world (from where?), space is by far the less mysterious. . . . Space is, after all, solid, monolithic. . . . Time, on the other hand, is a hostile element, truly treacherous, I would even say against human nature.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance

“They have shown school as a complex game, a battle of opposing interests, where the teacher, representing authority and power, attempts to pack the maximum information into the students' heads, while the students, by nature the weaker side, do their best to avoid that information.”
― Stanisław Lem, Highcastle: A Remembrance