The Fifth Head of Cerberus Quotes

“Seeing him brought in, has, I think, saved me from losing my mind; for that I do not thank him-sanity, after all is only reason applied to human affairs, and when this reason, applied over years, has resulted in disaster, destruction, despair, misery, starvation, and rot, the mind is correct to abandon it. This decision to discard reason, I see now, is not the last but the first reasonable act; and this insanity we are taught to fear consists in nothing but responding naturally and instinctively rather than with the culturally acquired, mannered thing called reason; an insane man talks nonsense because like a bird or a cat he is too sensible to talk sense.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“Each of us finds his way, his place; we rattle around the universe until everything fits; this is life; this is science, or something better than science.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“It is evil,” the Old Wise One said. “For very long we have walked carefree in the only paradise. It would be better if all here were to die.” The last Shadow child said firmly, “Nothing is worse than that I should die,” and something that had wrapped the world was gone.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“It is evil,” the Old Wise One said. “For very long we have walked carefree in the only paradise. It would be better if all here were to die.” The last Shadow child said firmly, “Nothing is worse than that I should die,” and something that had wrapped the world was gone. It went in an instant and left the river and the mist, the shaking, dancing marshmen and chanting Lastvoice and themselves all unchanged, but it had been bigger than everything and Sandwalker had never seen it because it had been there always, but now he could not remember what it had been. The sky was open now, with nothing at all between the birds and the sun; the mist swirling around Lastvoice might reach to Burning Hair Woman. Sandwalker looked at the last Shadow child and saw that he was weeping and that his eyes held nothing at all. He felt that way himself, and turning to Cedar Branches Waving asked, “Mother, what color are my eyes now?”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“A young man seeks a woman and finds her and is great and dies to the world. Afterward he is never as great again, but the woman is a comfort to him, reminding him of the time that was, and he is a little again with her what once he was wholly.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“We are the only government upon whose word every man may rely absolutely, and because of that we command infinite credit, infinite obedience, infinite respect If we say to anyone, “Do this and your reward will be such and such,” there is no doubt in his mind that he will be rewarded. If we say villages breaking a certain ordinance will be burned to the ground, there is no doubt. We speak little, but every word drops like a weight of iron—”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“I am not here to answer your questions. To answer would imply that we conceded some slight possibility of truth to your assertions of innocence, and we do not concede that. Truth is something which is to be had from us, not from you. Ours is the most remarkable government in the history of mankind; because we, and only we, have accepted as a working principle what every sage has taught and every government has feigned to accept: the power of the truth. And because we do, we rule as no other government has ever ruled. You have often asked me what your crime is, why we detain you. It is because we know you are lying—do you understand what I am telling you?”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“...Every woman is her true age when she sleeps.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“That which you call nothing is what holds all things apart.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“One heavy rifle (.35 cal.) for defense against large animals. To be carried by myself. 200 cartridges. One light rifle (.225 cal.) for securing small game for the pot. To be carried by the boy. 500 cartridges. One shotgun (20 gauge) for small game and birds. Packed on the lead mule. 160 shells. One case (200 boxes in all) of matches. Forty lb. of flour. Yeast. Two lb. tea (local). Ten lb. sugar. Ten lb. salt. Kitchen gear. Multivitamins. Aid kit. Wall tent, with repair kit for, and extra pegs and rope. Two sleeping bags. Utility tarp to use as ground cloth. Spare pair of boots (for myself). Extra clothing, shave kit, etc. Box of books—some I brought from Earth,”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“My master, the Marquis of Carabas, sends you greetings.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“The second came not as they are ordinarily born—that is, head foremost as a man climbs from a lower place into a high—but feet foremost as a man lets himself down into a lower place. His grandmother was holding his brother, not knowing that two were to be born, and for that reason his feet beat the ground for a time with no one to draw him forth. Because of this his mother called him John Sandwalker.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“Almost he slept again. Sorrow, sorrow, sorrow. Not sorrow, he thought, though when he remembered Seven Girls Waiting and Pink Butterflies and the living, thinking tree ruling kindly its little lake and flowered lawn in the country of sliding stones, something hurt. Sorrow, sorrow, sorrow, sang the night wind, throbbing. Not sorrow, Sandwalker thought to himself, hate. The marshmen had killed Flying Feet, who had sometimes out of his plenty given him to eat when he was small. They would kill Bloodyfinger and Leaves-you-can-eat, Sweetmouth and his mother. Sorrow, sing sorrow. Not sorrow, he thought, the wind, the tree. He sat up, listening to convince himself that it was only the sighing of the wind he heard, or perhaps the tree murmuring of better places. Whatever it was—perhaps, indeed, he had been wrong about this lonely, reed-hemmed tree—it was not an angry sound. It was … nothing. The lost wind sighed, but not in words. The leaves around him scarcely trembled. Far overhead and far away thunder boomed. Sorrow, sang many voices. Sorrow, sorrow, sorrow. Loneliness, and the night coming that will never go.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“Then he was gone, and the girl lay hugging her child, looking through the leaves at the bright band of The Waterfall and the broad seas and scattered storms of sisterworld. Then her eyes closed, and she could pull sisterworld from the tree. She put the blue rind to her lips and tasted sweetness. Then she woke again, the sweet juice still in her mouth. Someone was bending over her, and for a moment she was afraid.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“Because there is no opportunity to act. It is always wise to talk a great deal, discussing what has been done and what may be done, when nothing can be done. All the great political movements of history were born in prisons.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

“his body close to the ground, he turned and”
― Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus