"The most trivial skirmish is not trivial to those who die in it, and so should not be trivial in any ultimate sense to us."

Gene Wolfe Literature See all quotes by Gene Wolfe →

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More by Gene Wolfe

“What little I have learned in the course of a long life, regarding the gods, I have tried to forget.”

“There are people who love birds so much they free them. There are others who love them so much they cage them.”

“Until we reach the end of time, we don’t know whether something’s been good or bad; we can only judge the intentions of those who acted.”

“No man has a home unless he is master of a place where he must please no one—a place where he can go and lock the door behind him.”

“The best way to be thought honest is to be honest.”

““You’re called a holy man,” she said. “I see you’re wholly deranged.”

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"People who are loving toward each other set up their marriages so that it is possible for both partners to get what they need from life and so that no one is expected to give up his needs to meet thos…"

— Merle Shain

Journalism1935–1989

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"The case for reviving the state does not rest uniquely upon its contributions to modern society as a collective project; there is a more urgent consideration. We have entered an age of fear. Insecurit…"

— Tony Judt

Literature1948–2010

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"I’m gonna miss the old sith lord. He was the best pope atheists could hope for. He started out as a Hitler youth actually wearing a Nazi uniform. As a Cardinal, he famously conspired to conceal sex cr…"

— Aron Ra

Politics1962

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