The Book of the New Sun Quotes

“By each step in war the winner loses.”

“Have I said that time turns our lies into truths?”

“Those who wish no change may sit hugging their scruples forever.”

“An angel is often only a demon who stands between us and our enemy.”

“The best way to describe silence is to say nothing—but what grace!”

“I am not clever—I am too strong for cleverness, as you well understand.”

“That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin.”

“We’ll both be glad of the company, like the undertaker remarked to the ghost.”

“One of the easiest ways to dominate a man is to demand something he cannot supply.”

“Resolution and a plan are better than a sword, because a man whets his own edges on them.”

“The soldiers forced him to his knees and I lifted my sword, forever blotting out the sun.”

“I felt that pressure of time that is perhaps the surest indication we have left childhood behind.”

““I know little of the court, Chatelaine.”
“The less you know, the happier you will be.””

“He had a slightly cynical detachment from mankind that suggested he had seen a great deal of the world.”

“There was something underneath, something else, a face like the face poison would have, if poison had a face.”

“Dorcas drew back. “Magic, you mean?”
“There is no magic. There is only knowledge, more or less hidden.””

“Wikipedia: The Book of the New Sun”

“Most men think they make their home for their families, but the fact is that they make both homes and families for themselves.”

“There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity.”

“Men to whom wine had brought death long before lay by springs of wine and drank still, too stupefied to know their lives were past.”