Michael Shea quotes - page 2

Deeper and deeper. Ever greater power. Ever greater evil. (Michael Shea)
Ambitious dabblers in sorcery add much to the hell that is on earth. View quote
Michael Shea
Weigh then your wealth, and judge if it's more dear To you than life. If not, your course is clear. View quote
Michael Shea
The assumption that we would ever be called upon to perform this second task now appeared quite clearly to me as the most extravagant folly, based on a wild delusion conceived by a raving idiot. View quote
Michael Shea
And most important, nothing was to be taken for granted in that place. In Death's world, any covenant, no matter how mighty, can fall null-any spell, however cogent, can be abrogated. The only certain law in that place is Death itself. View quote
Michael Shea
He's here, of course, strictly through his own ambitious carelessness.” "Prime flaws of youth, of course-but also its strengths, this carelessness and mbition. View quote
Michael Shea
Rage and wounded pride look painful on a young face. Sixteen is a difficult age to get on with. There's much to like-the freshness, the force of conviction. But there is also a certain arrogance, an inevitable concomitant of development, perhaps, which one must always struggle to forgive. View quote
Michael Shea
You realize of course, Barnar, that it is simply not possible that we're actually doing this?” "I've come to the same comforting conclusion, old friend. Therefore let's away-an impossibility can only do us an unreal sort of harm, after all. View quote
Michael Shea
Freedom! That belabored word! It is a big, empty word, and yet, when some experience reminds us what freedom is, how clear and particular its meaning becomes, how unspeakably sweet, and full! View quote
Michael Shea
Is it not unsettling to consider the blind unlikelihoods that shape one's fate? View quote
Michael Shea
Those feats of deep cunning and brave flair-we're all allotted a few of them, and we get no more, no matter what our longing is. And you know, you're lucky if you even recognize when you're having your best moments. Half the time your soul is looking the other way when they come. And you never grow wise enough to know what they were until you have passed the hope of of having more. (Michael Shea)
Dalissem chuckled. It felt like being grinned at by a big mountain cat-delightful for the beauty of the animal, disturbing for the possible sequel. View quote
Michael Shea
I shall present as certain only those data corroborated by exhaustive research, or by my own personal investigations, as I am not untraveled for a bookish man. Wherever doubt exists, I shall unambiguously state its degree and nature, along with whatever grounds I may have for preferring one hypothesis over another. If, despite all I have said, the reader disdains such honest ambiguity, and stubbornly prefers the unequivocal assertiveness to be found in factitious travelogues penned by raffish "explorers,” or in the specious "natural histories” compiled by crapulous and unprincipled hacks who have never left their squalid lofts in Scrivener's Row, then there is nothing further I can do, and I leave him, with apologies, to his deception. View quote
Michael Shea
And I make bold to say that I am not the only one of my countrymen who could profit from taking this admonition to heart. View quote
Michael Shea
At that age you invent extravagant compensations for bruises to your dignity. View quote
Michael Shea