Lord Daldace looked about as if seeing the villa for the first time. What are dreams? Ordinary experience is a dream. The eyes, the ears, the nose: they present pictures on the brain, and these pictur...
I hate you with the hate that I give to all the world; I love you with a feeling nothing else arouses.
I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.
I can resolve your perplexity,’ said Fianosther. ‘Your booth occupies the site of the old gibbet, and has absorbed unlucky essences. But I thought to notice you examining the manner in which the timbe...
I admit to a specialized occupation, which in fact has not so much as acquired a name. Not to put too keen an edge on it, I wait under gallows until the corpse drops, whereupon I assume possession of...
From Life, Volume III, by Unspiek, Baron Bodissey: I am constantly startled and often amused by the diverse attitudes toward wealth to be found among the peoples of the Oikumene. Some societies equate...
Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience. Otherwise they fall into desuetude and become unfashionable, unorthodox—finally irregulationary.
Earth . . . A dim place, ancient beyond knowledge . . . Ages of rain and wind have beaten and rounded the granite, and the sun is red and feeble . . . A million cities have lifted towers, have fallen...
What great minds lie in the dust, said Guyal in a low voice. What gorgeous souls have vanished into the buried ages; what marvellous creatures are lost past the remotest memory … Nevermore will there...
Star-watching: at night the stars of Alastor Cluster blaze in profusion. The atmosphere refracts their light; the sky quivers with beams, glitters, and errant flashes. The Trills go out into their gar...
Somewhere there is mystery. It impels one to theosophy: to the worship of a space-god, or a god of light. Theory dissolves the mystery, though it lays bare a cryptic new stratum. Quite likely there is...
I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic of a trillion pieces, the account of each man’s accommodation with his conscience. T...
Bending, she kissed Glawen’s cheek. Thank you for a lovely day. Wait! cried Glawen. Come back! I think not, said Wayness, and ran off up the path to Riverview House.
Who are our basic enemies? This is a secret, unknown even to these basic enemies. — Xaviar Skolcamp, Over-Centennial Fellow of the Institute, indulgently, in response to a journalist’s too-searching q...
When we shattered the Actuarian, we shattered the bar across the sky. Now, life, eternal life, is at anyone's demand. Man must move forward; this is the nature of his brain and blood. Today he is give...
The secret, so Shimrod knew, was never to accept the fairies’ terms, but always to close the deal on one’s own stipulations, otherwise the bargain was sure to turn sour.
The old Galactic Prime sat silent, mouth compressed, eyes burning like far volcanoes. At his feet the new Prime, Lord of Two Billion Suns, found a dead leaf, put it into his mouth, and began to chew....
She seems somewhat morose and out of sorts. Do you beat her often?''I must admit that I do not.''There is the answer! Beat her well; beat her often! It will bring roses to her cheeks! There is nothing...
Light slanting down across Alode the Cliff illuminated a hundred forests; the irradiated foliage seemed to glow with internal light: bitter lime, intense gray-blue given pointillist fire by scarlet se...
Le persone che vivevano in massa, pensò Shorn, erano come ciottoli su di una spiaggia: ciascuna levigava il suo vicino, fino a quando tutte erano assolutamente uniformi.