Tell you I will. This is Shaping’s world. He that is a good child here, knows pleasure, pain, and love, and gets his rewards. But there’s another world—not Shaping’s—and there all this is unknown, and another order of things reigns. That world we call…
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A Voyage to Arcturus quotes
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About the book
After a strange séance in London, a man named Maskull is taken by two mysterious companions on a voyage to Tormance, a planet circling the star Arcturus. Wandering its weird landscapes, he meets beings who each live by a different philosophy of pleasure, pain, beauty and duty, and is changed by every encounter. It is a visionary, philosophical fantasy that later inspired writers such as C. S. Lewis.
6 quotes
Maskull: On Earth, … men like Panawe are called artists, poets, and musicians. Beauty overflows into them too, and out of them again. The only distinction is that their productions are more human and intelligible. Panawe: Nothing comes from it but vanity.
Attach yourself to the truth, not to me. For I may die before you, but the truth will accompany you to your death.
Gleameil: Did you imagine beauty to be pleasant? Maskull: Surely. Gleameil: That pleasant beauty is an insipid compound of Shaping. To see beauty in its terrible purity, you must tear away the pleasure from it.
All the people there are the same. They think life is to be looked at, and not lived.
Spadevil: Shall I speak with many words, or few words? Catice: If you wish to say what is not, many words will not suffice. If you wish to say what is, a few words will be enough.