Six Moon Dance Quotes

“We are made of the stuff of stars, given our lives by a living world, given our selves by time. We are brother to the trees and sister to the sun. We are of such glorious stuff we need not carry pain around like a label. Our duty, as living things, to be sure that pain is not our whole story, for we can choose to be otherwise. As Ellin says, we can choose to dance.”
― Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance: An Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure of Ancient Mysteries and Apocalyptic Survival

“if a being has sufficient sense of justice and civility to know it has done wrong, knowing it has done wrong is often sufficient punishment. If the being has no remorse, punishment will only increase its anger.”
― Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance: An Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure of Ancient Mysteries and Apocalyptic Survival

“Only mavericks live in accordance with their desires, and even they don’t often get away with it. They are usually labeled as troublemakers and gotten rid of.”
― Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance: An Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure of Ancient Mysteries and Apocalyptic Survival

“Our religion is monotheistic. We worship the lifeforce that pervades the galaxy in infinite variety, life that bubbles up from the ferment of worlds, and we know that force may appear in myriad guises. There is no rivalry among these guises, as they are all aspects of the same divinity, one so vast and complex that She can be infinitely divided into parts while every part remains infinite.”
― Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance: An Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure of Ancient Mysteries and Apocalyptic Survival

“If you want to know about a Purse fish, you don’t beat the fish to death or drain the sea dry. You look at the fish where it is. You study how it swims and what it eats and how it lives. You don’t take hold of it, or kill it, you watch it. So, if you want to know who you are, you don’t go laying around with a pickax. You try to catch yourself when you’re not pushed by anybody or anything and watch yourself. You see what you do, and you figure out why, and you decide how that makes you feel, and how it affects others, and whether it makes you joyful or proud. “It’s amazing how many people don’t know their own nature, even though they can’t do anything with it until they know what it is. How can you move toward joy if you don’t know what makes you happy?” Simon shook his head. “Nobody’s required to live in pain. We should always try to move toward joy….” He looked up to meet Mouche’s smile, suddenly radiant. “Oh, Simon,” he said, “It’s not easy, but you’re right. And even the pain lights a road for you, doesn’t it? It beckons you to fix it! Like if you know something’s hurt, you can try to mend it.” Simon, surprised into near silence, agreed it could.”
― Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance: An Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure of Ancient Mysteries and Apocalyptic Survival

“You are holding women to a higher standard than men," he said. "Madame used to tell us that this is traditional, for men have usually been the judges, and they put women either in the gutter or on a pedestal. Men have traditionally forgiven one another, for they know and excuse their own failings, but they do not forgive women for falling off the pedestal." (p. 516)”
― Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance

“Bofusdiaga says past wrongs cannot be righted because past wrongs are past and time only runs one way. Bofusdiaga says all you independent creatures suffer great wrongs sometime in the past, which is normal, but you stay always living in the past so you can continue wronged forever! Forever miserable, forever tragical! Bofusdiaga says so long as you go chewing yesterday's pains, you cannot eat today's pleasures, so it is no help!”
― Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance

“The ancient lizard mind lies below the mammalian mind, which lies below a primate mind, which is modified by a mind adapted to language, and since these layers have developed in response to differing evolutionary pressures, they often do not function efficiently together. Human civility tries to control ape dominance, human rationality tries to control mammalian sexuality, human social conscience tries to ameliorate reptilian greed, never with total success.”
― Sheri S. Tepper, Six Moon Dance: An Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure of Ancient Mysteries and Apocalyptic Survival