Continuing the earlier thread with the Zamyatin quote, I discovered this little jewel while reading Michael Moorcock's Sailor on the Seas of Fate featuring the penultimate Philosopher/Reluctant Warrior King, Elric of Melnibone.
"He ran his fingers through his milk-white hair and there was a kind of innocent anguish in his crimson eyes. He might be the last of his kind and yet he was unlike his kind. Smiorgan had been wrong. Elric knew that everything that existed had its opposite. In danger he might find peace. And yet, of course, in peace there was danger. Being an imperfect creature in an imperfect world he would always know paradox. And that was why in paradox there was always a kind of truth. That was why philosophers and soothsayers flourished. In a perfect world there would be no place for them. In an imperfect world the mysteries were always without solution and that was why there was always a great choice of solutions."
(Note: I read the first page of this book during the rehearsal of a high school play--I think Chris Saenz was reading it--It took me this long to get back to it. It was worth the wait: deep philosophical musings, pulse-pounding adventures, and some really beautiful prose. I never knew high fantasy was so much fun!)
95 Days til the Burn
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