The Clockwork Dynasty Quotes

“Maps are just a lie we tell ourselves to feel safe.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“I do not know if the choices we make are ours or not; whether the planets hold any more agency in their orbits than we do in ours.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“Our memories may evaporate, our power may run out, but our souls can be revived someday, so long as the original vessel can be made intact.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“I fight and live with a thorn buried in my side, always staggering toward the illusion of true purpose.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“Mouth pinched, the Sunday school teacher waved at me to stop talking. Folding her Bible on her lap, she told me my answer. Because the Bible says so, June. Because. It never satisfied me. But how much easier would my life be if “because” were enough? My grandfather used to say the world is full of hidden truths, if only you open your eyes and look. New frontiers are waiting to be explored, no matter what the schoolteachers say or how many books have been written. Maps are just a lie we tell ourselves to feel safe.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“The underlying logic of a living thing is its own survival.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“No matter how crazy it seems, the world always operates by the rules. Those rules can be understood, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“This is the strange state of man which they call civilization. And perhaps most strange, I think, is that by all accounts it is the natural state of humanity.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“My grandfather used to say the world is full of hidden truths, if only you open your eyes and look. New frontiers are waiting to be explored, no matter what the schoolteachers say or how many books have been written. Maps are just a lie we tell ourselves to feel safe.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently usurping His power of creating souls….Rather we are…instruments of His will, providing mansions for the souls that He creates. —ALAN TURING, 1950”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“A deeper truth exists, waiting to be found... inviting me to go every direction at once, and none.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“We live, and then forgetting -- we live yet again. Sometimes, the consequences of the past follow us across many lives.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“Her weight is delicate in my arms, like a leaf carried on the quaking back of this monstrous river. I chose to protect her and I failed. I do not know if the choices we make are ours or not; whether the planets hold any more agency in their orbits than we do in ours. But even if I am a prisoner to clockwork, I cannot imagine leaving her.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty

“A vision washes over my mind. Elena’s innocent face, inches away from mine, her arms tight around my neck. Somewhere, a dragon is roaring, flecks of hot spittle twirling past in yellow clouds. The silhouette of a woman wavers in the haze—death incarnate.”
― Daniel H. Wilson, The Clockwork Dynasty