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bc498b6
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Master," Malowebi once asked, "what is the path to truth?" "Ah, little Malo," old Zabwiri had replied, "the answer is not so difficult as you think. The trick is to learn how to pick out fools. Look for those who think things simple, who abhor uncertainty, and who are incapable of setting aside their summary judgment. And above all, look for those who believe flattering things. They are the true path to wisdom. For the claims they find the ..
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R. Scott Bakker |
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38a81b0
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All men recited self-aggrandizing stories, words of ascendancy and exception, to balm the inevitable indignities of fact. An emperor need only repeat those stories to command the hearts of men.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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0b21d28
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Despite all the pain, all the wrenching loss, there is no greater glory than a complicated life.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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5c87ea5
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What comes before determines what comes after," Kellhus continued. "For the Dunyain, there's no higher principle." "And just what comes before?" Cnaiur asked, trying to force a sneer. "For Men? History. Language. Passion. Custom. All these things determine what men say, think, and do. These are the hidden puppet-strings from which all men hang." Shallow breath. A face freighted by unwanted insights. "And when the strings are seen . . ." "Th..
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R. Scott Bakker |
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285abd1
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Where power was perceived, power was given. For his entire life Conphas had been surrounded by tutors.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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46db7fc
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Power does not make safe. History murders the children of weak rulers.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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57c5ecb
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Truths were carved from the identical wood as were lies--words--and so sank or floated with equal ease.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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469aea5
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Hoga Gothyelk no longer felt anger, not truly -- only varieties of sorrow.
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insight
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R. Scott Bakker |
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3b27467
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Nigdy nie uwazal, ze ,,czyta" ksiazki. Jezyk byl w tym wypadku rownie zdradziecki, jak u hazardzisty, ktory przechwala sie wygrana partia, tak jakby sila lub determinacja wydarl losowi zwyciestwo, gdy tymczasem szczesliwy rzut sztonami nie byl niczym wiecej, jak tylko udana proba wykorzystania chwili wlasnej bezradnosci. Otwarcie ksiazki zas wiazalo sie z ryzykiem zupelnie innej miary. Otwierajac ksiazke, nie tylko stawal sie bezradny, nie ..
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książki
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R. Scott Bakker |
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3e0f429
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he knew that one never stood still, even while waiting. That sometimes the sheathed knife could cut the most throats of all.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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35a0b21
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It's the concert of knowledge and ignorance that underwrites our decisions.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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c8b58f6
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He saw clearly now why he so loved this species of war. On the field of battle, his every act was open to the scrutiny of others. Here, however, he stood outside scrutiny, enacted destiny from a place that transcended judgement or recrimination. He lay hidden in the womb of events. Like a God.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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c271279
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He had despised the sorcerer, thinking him one of those mewling souls who forever groaned beneath burdens of their own manufacture.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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fb1110a
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a strange coldness had settled upon Achamian, the monolithic selfishness of which only children and madmen are sometimes capable.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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185a670
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Ignorance was ever the iron of certainty, for it was as blind to itself as sleep. It was the absence of questions that made answers absolute--not knowledge! To
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R. Scott Bakker |
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3ae1447
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Ignorance was ever the iron of certainty, for it was as blind to itself as sleep. It was the absence of questions that made answers absolute--not knowledge!
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R. Scott Bakker |
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5a6ef3b
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Whore. How many men had embraced her? How many gritty chins against her cheek? Always something to be endured. All of them punishing her for their need. Monotony had made them seem laughable, a long queue of the weak, the hopeful, the ashamed, the angered, the dangerous. How easily one grunting body replaced the next, until they became abstract things, moments of a ludicrous ceremony, spilling bowel-hot libations upon her, smearing her with..
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R. Scott Bakker |
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544cb6b
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Helplessness. If women were hope's oldest companions, it was due to helplessness. Certainly women often exerciced dreadful power over a single hearth, but the world between hearths belonged to men.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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a4b0801
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Intelligent people, Achamian had found, were typically less happy. The reason for this was simple: they were better able to rationalize their delusions. The ability to stomach Truth had little to do with intelligence--nothing, in fact. The intellect was far better at arguing away truths than at finding them.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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b38877e
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This is the problem of all great revelations: their significance so often exceeds the frame of our comprehension. We understand only after, always after. Not simply when it is too late, but precisely because it is too late. --
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R. Scott Bakker |
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b20155a
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Every woman knows there are only two kinds of men: those who feel and those who pretend. Always remember, my dear, though only the former can be loved, only the latter can be trusted. It is passion that blackens eyes, not calculation.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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45b0b9c
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Almost all men prized the familiar path over the true.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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0dc484b
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You can only believe so many lies before becoming one of them.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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dba3ed5
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Nothing makes fools of people quite like a luxurious life," Achamian said, shaking his head and nodding. "Ajencis says they confuse decisions made atop pillows for those compelled by stones. When they hear of other people being deceived, they're certain they would know better. When they hear of other people being oppressed, they're certain they would do anything but beg and cringe when the club is raised ..." "And so they judge," Mimara sai..
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R. Scott Bakker |
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e1b7c79
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Gods are but greater demons," the Cishaurim said, "hungers across the surface of eternity, wanting only to taste the clarity of our souls. Can you not see this?"
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religion
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R. Scott Bakker |
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4523e21
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To indulge it is to breed it. To punish it is to feed it. Madness knows no bridle but the knife. --SCYLVENDI
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R. Scott Bakker |
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046aacb
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No intellect is orphaned, despite all the foundling hearts. All sons are born stranded because all fathers are sons. Every child is told, even those suckled on the teats of wolves.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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0e80d35
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A lifetime of cannibal hatred
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R. Scott Bakker |
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d391fd6
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Conceit does not sit well with martyrdom.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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7f9d4b5
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Above all the mighty detest change.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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7eb55d4
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All men are greater than dead men.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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62ba3dd
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While waiting for the hidden machinery of messengers and secretaries to relay his request, Achamian wandered into an adjoining courtyard, struck by the other immensities that framed his present circumstance. Even if there were no Consult, no threat of the Second Apocalypse, he realized, nothing would be the same. Kellhus would change the world, not in the way of an Ajencis or a Triamis, but in the way of an Inri Sejenus. This, Achamian real..
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R. Scott Bakker |
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401751f
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He said ..." A pause. He cleared his throat. "He said that pity was the only love I could hope for."
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pity
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R. Scott Bakker |
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e5bae53
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Sometimes he would stare at the bare trees for so long, they would lose their radial dimensions and seem something flat, like blood smeared into the wrinkles about an old woman's eyes.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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bf582ac
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He looked like a bored boy deciding whether to poke a dead fish.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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05240f8
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The arguments were assembled and were defeated. The reasons railed and railed. But love had no logic. No more than sleep.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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2505737
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Sleep, when deep enough, is indistinguishable from vigilance.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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bb4562d
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It seemed poison had been poured into wonder's own decanter.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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564777c
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The air became dry and still, like the gap in a dead man's mouth.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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3499912
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Suffer not a whore to live, for she maketh a pit of her womb.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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adf5ec5
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Fate was but one more world-born subterfuge, another lie men used to give meaning to their abject helplessness.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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38fc321
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The genius of most men lay in finding reasons after their actions. The heart was ever self-serving, especially when the beliefs served involved sacrifice.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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3f6ee79
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Nau-Cayuti's eyes gleamed like bared teeth in the gloom.
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R. Scott Bakker |
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38a0bbf
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Where the holy take men for fools, the mad take the world. --
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R. Scott Bakker |