Quotes from Gene Wolfe's THE BOOK OF THE SHORT SUN

THE QUOTABLE SHORT SUN

ON BLUE’S WATERS

122.-2 Sometimes it is better to make haste slowly.
185.2 If you wish to do a thing again, you must do it slowly.
185.2 What is written with great rapidity is rarely read, or worth reading.
211.3 Paradoxes explain everything. Since they do, they can’t be explained.
234.3 A closed mouth catches nae flies.
237.-1 The eyes see what the mind expects.
257.2 We are every bit as human as you are, whatever that means.
284.-2 If I need more courage than I have to live, I will pretend to have it and live anyway.
309.-2 A prisoner is free to get away if he can. I am no prisoner, and so cannot.
340.8 I never told you how it was for me when you died.
348.-2 Buildings are temporary. Ideas permanent.
354.6 Well, I can report that I’m in the god’s good books, since they’ve provided an unmistakable sign of their favor [humility].

381.-2
I’m old now and soon must leave you,
But a fairer maid I ne’er did see.
Curse me not that I bereave you,
I cannot stay, no more would she.
These fair young girls live to deceive you,
Sad experience teaches me.



IN GREEN’S JUNGLES

18.-6 A wise man never harms another unless he intends to harm.
24.-2 Experience is a wonderful teacher, but one whose lessons come to late.
32.2 If work’s a good thing, why don’t the rich take it?
48.2 Fight to the end, but fight to somebody else’s end.
68.2 All stories are false, and none are falser than those that are supposed to be true. The lie adds a second layer of falsity.
74.-1 People of quality write letters.
76.-4 It is nothing to say, “I will be logical.” It is everything to be logical.
155.-4 At least I know how little I know.
219.-4 [Definition of peace] A period of cheating between two periods of fighting.
247.3 Interest, excitement and heroics enough for every quill in Oreb’s wings.
274.3 A war is never really won until the enemy’s ability to wage war no longer exists.
352.3 I won’t secure my safety at the price of my honor.



RETURN TO THE WHORL

16.1 Ghosts did not realize they had died. (Remora)
117.-3 Real stories, real events, never really end.
122.5 Silence and darkness, and the weight of years.
131.3 “Pretty often I thought I could have made it better,” to this Pas replied, “Yes, that’s what I wanted you to do.”
142.2 We are but the paper. Our clothes are the ink.
179.3 I’m causing him pain. Only children believe that there is no difference between cruelty and education.
182.-3 Are you sure?… No, but I’m going to bet my life on it…
184.-1 Besides, to line out is to accept responsibility of all that is let stand… No there really are such things as honest mistakes; this account is full of them, and I intend to leave it that way.
214.4 One could not forget what one had not known.
227.9 I’ve learned that I have a sort of mania for writing down conversations.
230.2 We live our lives in our thoughts or we do not live.
230.4 How do people with whom we walk in our dreams perceive our waking?
235.-1 A good woman’s hair is never of a bad color.
235.-3 Only love sees the unveiled truth.

241.-2 [from the Charasmologic Writings]
There where a fountain’s gurgling waters play,
they rush to land, and end in feast the day:
they feed; then quaff; and now (their hunger fled)
sigh for their friends and mourn the dead;
nor cease their tears till each in slumber shares
a sweet forgetfulness of human cares.
Now far the night advances her gloomy reign,
And setting stars roll down the azure plain:
At the voice of Pas wild whirlwinds rise,
And clouds and double darkness veil the skies.

246.4 It’s far better to..to have a bad leg or something of the sort than a propensity for evil.
262.-4 Leave beauty to your words. If your letters can be read, for them that is beauty enough.
271.2 Why are people mean? Because they separate themselves from the Outsider.
271.-4 it’s only a walking stick when I walk with it.
272.-3 But it would be easier to overturn a mountain than to replace it.
275.2 A bad horse needs a big whip.
309.4 We are generally unaware of our instincts
232.-2 Whispers swept the throng that filled the Grand Mantieon as a breeze sweeps a forest in leaf.
338.-3 If you rob someone who would help you if you needed help you only rob yourself.