Ben Gold
https://www.goodreads.com/onebrieflife
“There’s faith that knows itself as faith, Proyas, and there’s faith that confuses itself for knowledge. The first embraces uncertainty, acknowledges the mysteriousness of the God. It begets compassion and tolerance. Who can entirely condemn when they’re not entirely certain they’re in the right? But the second, Proyas, the second embraces certainty and only pays lip service to the God’s mystery. It begets intolerance, hatred, violence.”
― The Darkness That Comes Before
― The Darkness That Comes Before
“I'll tell you something. Once I was very fond of a poem by Emily Dickinson or somebody. I only remember one line of it, but it goes, 'The soul selects her own society.' I used to tell it to everybody. Once I quoted it to a friend of mine, and he said, 'Maybe, but the body gets thrown into bed with the goddamnedest people.”
― A Fine and Private Place
― A Fine and Private Place
“Doubt begets understanding, and understanding begets compassion. Verily, it is conviction that kills.”
― The Thousandfold Thought
― The Thousandfold Thought
“If soot stains your tunic, dye it black. This is vengeance.”
― The Thousandfold Thought
― The Thousandfold Thought
“Call themselves?" asked Yama. "You are wrong, Sam, Godhood is more than a name. It is a condition of being. One does not achieve it merely by being immortal, for even the lowliest laborer in the fields may achieve continuity of existence. Is it then the conditioning of an Aspect? No. Any competent hypnotist can play games with the self-image. Is it the raising up of an Attribute? Of course not. I can design machines more powerful and more accurate than any faculty a man may cultivate. Being a god is the quality of being able to be yourself to such an extent that your passions correspond with the forces of the universe, so that those who look upon you know this without hearing your name spoken. Some ancient poet said that the world is full of echoes and correspondences. Another wrote a long poem of an inferno, wherein each man suffered a torture which coincided in nature with those forces which had ruled his life. Being a god is being able to recognize within one's self these things that are important, and then to strike the single note that brings them into alignment with everything else that exists. Then, beyond morals or logic or esthetics, one is wind or fire, the sea, the mountains, rain, the sun or the stars, the flight of an arrow, the end of a day, the clasp of love. One rules through one's ruling passions. Those who look upon gods then say, without even knowing their names, 'He is Fire. She is Dance. He is Destruction. She is Love.' So, to reply to your statement, they do not call themselves gods. Everyone else does, though, everyone who beholds them."
"So they play that on their fascist banjos, eh?"
"You choose the wrong adjective."
"You've already used up all the others.”
― Lord of Light
"So they play that on their fascist banjos, eh?"
"You choose the wrong adjective."
"You've already used up all the others.”
― Lord of Light
American Gods: All Gaiman, All The Time
— 949 members
— last activity Nov 03, 2023 12:17PM
What? No group for Neil Gaiman fan(atic)s? For Shame! Well, now there is--a group for all things Gaiman. If you're a fan of his novels, his graphic no ...more
Writers Block Battering Ram
— 25 members
— last activity Apr 15, 2015 07:22AM
For all those great writers with the dreaded block, we will help give you ideas, or just let you rant and rave until you get it out of your system.
Ben’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Ben’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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