R. Scott Bakker quotes

Love is lust made meaningful. Hope is hunger made human. (R. Scott Bakker)
The bondage we are born into is the bondage we cannot see. Verily, freedom is little more than the ignorance of tyranny. Live long enough, and you will see: Men resent not the whip so much as the hand that wields it.
R. Scott Bakker
The world is a big place and our brain is only three pounds.
R. Scott Bakker
I wanted a literate, socially intricate, and cosmopolitan world - something I could have fun destroying.
R. Scott Bakker
I tell you, guilt dwells nowhere but in the eyes of the accuser. This men know even as they deny it, which is why they so often make murder their absolution. The truth of crime lies not with the victim but with the witness.
R. Scott Bakker
The world is only as deep as we can see. This is why fools think themselves profound. This is why terror is the passion of revelation.
R. Scott Bakker
If the world is a game whose rules are written by the God, and sorcerers are those who cheat and cheat, then who has written the rules of sorcery?
R. Scott Bakker
To indulge it is to breed it. To punish it is to feed it. Madness knows no bridle but the knife.
R. Scott Bakker
Any fool can see the limits of seeing, but not even the wisest know the limits of knowing. Thus is ignorance rendered invisible, and are all Men made fools.
R. Scott Bakker
A beggar's mistake harms no one but the beggar. A king's mistake, however, harms everyone but the king. Too often, the measure of power lies not in the number who obey your will, but in the number who suffer your stupidity.
R. Scott Bakker
It is only after that we understand what has come before, then we understand nothing. Thus we shall define the soul as follows: that which precedes everything. (R. Scott Bakker)
Faith is the truth of passion. Since no passion is more true than another, faith is the truth of nothing.
R. Scott Bakker
Doubt begets understanding, and understanding begets compassion. Verily, it is conviction that kills.
R. Scott Bakker
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.
R. Scott Bakker
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.
R. Scott Bakker
Achamian tossed his hands skyward in dismay. "Foolish boy! How many faiths are there? How many competing beliefs? And you would murder another on the slender hope that yours is somehow the only one?
R. Scott Bakker
Every monumental work of the State is measured by cubits. Every cubit is measured by the length of the Aspect-Emperor's arm. And the Aspect-Emperor's arm, they say, stands beyond measure. But I say the Aspect-Emperor's arm is measured by the length of a cubit, and that all cubits are measured by the works of the State. Not even the All stands beyond measure, for it is more than what lies within it, and "more” is a kind of measure. Even the God has His cubits.
R. Scott Bakker