E.S.

“A class struggling to assert itself, to discover its true shape, which lies hidden, as does the statue in the marble, in the hard, resisting material of life itself, must, in the nature of things, be different from that same class when chisel and mallet have been laid aside, and it has actually become what it had so long been struggling to be.”
― Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist

“There are phases in history when defensive techniques progress more quickly than offensive techniques. During these periods, wars become rarer because the cost of attacking is higher than the cost of defending. But there are other times when offensive technologies gain the upper hand. These are the bloodiest ages, when wars break out more frequently, because attacking others is cheaper than defending what you have. ... These days, attack is cheaper than defence. Much cheaper. And the price keeps coming down.”
― Giuliano da Empoli, L'heure des prédateurs

“It's a symbol. And symbols are ways of disguising what people can't bear to see clearly.”
― Ramsey Campbell, Midnight Sun

“To help us not to remember what we're afraid of, what the human race has invented whole religions to conceal. All religions are like stories people told by the fire when there was nothing but the fire and stories to keep off the cold and the dark, because people couldn't bear to know what was out there beyond the light.”
― Ramsey Campbell, Midnight Sun