Michael Moorcock Quotes (224 quotes, page 4)

“Elric knew that in reality Chaos was the harbinger of stagnation, for though it changed constantly, it never progressed.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 3, “Sad Giant’s Shield,” Chapter 3 “A Watery Summoning” (p. 545)
The Elric Cycle, Stormbringer (1965)

Reality , Change

“Why do we worship such a god when whim decides him so often?”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1, Chapter 4 “Of Living Swords and Dead Gods” (p. 463)
The Elric Cycle, Stormbringer (1965)

God

“I must admit, sir, that I have modified the verses a little, to allow for the new things I have learned, so I am an unreliable source of truth, sir, save in its most fundamental sense. Like a majority of poets, sir.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 3 “A Rose Redeemed; A Rose Revived,” Chapter 1 “Of Weapons Possessed of Will” (p. 270)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

Sense , Truth , Learning

“For this was the other thing that Elric knew; that to compromise with Tyranny is always to be destroyed by it. The sanest and most logical choice lay always in resistance.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 2, Chapter 5 “Detecting Certain Hints of the Higher Worlds” (p. 259)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

“In my own world, sir, sad to say, human prejudice is matched only by human folly. Not a soul claims to be prejudiced, of course, as there are few who would describe themselves as fools…”

Michael Moorcock

Elric, chewing on a piece of barely palatable salt beef, remarked that this seemed a quality of a good deal of society, throughout the multiverse.
Book 2, Chapter 4 “Land at Last!” (p. 241)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

World , Sadness , Fools , Soul

“You desire power only for that most selfish of all ends, and therefore you know no boundaries in the seeking and the gaining of it.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 2, Chapter 2 “In Which Old Acquaintances Are Resumed and New Agreements Reached” (p. 226)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

Selfishness

“Did you not tell me once that patronage of the artist was the only valuable vocation to which a prince might aspire?”

Michael Moorcock

Book 2 “Esbern Snare: The Northern Werewolf,” Chapter 1 “Consequences of Ill-Considered Dealings With the Supernatural” (p. 218)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

“There are subjects forbidden by good manners, it seems. As in many societies, I suppose, where the very fundamentals of their existence are the subject of the deepest taboos. What is this terror of reality, I wonder, which plagues the human spirit?”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1, Chapter 4 “On Joining the Gypsies” (pp. 188-189)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

Reality

“The man is a relic, gentlemen, from an age most of us have only read about. He would have us judged by our wealth and our martial glory rather than our goodwill and tranquility of spirit.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1, Chapter 3 “Peculiar Geography of an Unknown Realm” (p. 167)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

Age , Wealth , Reading

“Elric was recollecting what was best and noblest in his own people and in himself, and even as he celebrated this he mourned the self-obsessed creatures they had become, using their power merely to preserve their power and that, he supposed, was true decay…”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1, Chapter 1 “Of Love, Death, Battle & Exile” (pp. 144-145)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

Self-confidence , People

“I am for no master nor moral persuasion. I am for myself. What your yearning soul, madam, might mistake for loyalty to person or Purpose is merely a firm and, aye, principled determination to accept responsibility only for myself and my own actions.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1 “Concerning the Fate of Empires,” Chapter 1 “Of Love, Death, Battle & Exile” (p. 137)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

Personality , Soul , Loyalty

“I do not know. That is the only real truth, Shaarilla. I do not know.”

Michael Moorcock

Source: The Elric Cycle, The Weird of the White Wolf (1977), Chapter 1, “A Woman Who Would Risk Grief to Her Soul” (p. 452)

Truth

“Despairingly, sometimes, I seek the comfort of a benign god, Shaarilla. My mind goes out, lying awake at night, searching through black barrenness for something—anything—which will take me to it, warm me, protect me, tell me that there is order in the chaotic tumble of the universe; that it is consistent, this precision of the planets, not simply a brief, bright spark of sanity in an eternity of malevolent anarchy.”

Michael Moorcock

Elric sighed and his quiet tones were tinged with hopelessness. “Without some confirmation of the order of things, my only comfort is to accept the anarchy. This way, I can revel in chaos and know, without fear, that we are doomed from the start—that our brief existence is both meaningless and damned. I can accept, then, that we are more than forsaken, because there was never anything there to forsake us. I have weighed the proof, Shaarilla, and must believe that anarchy prevails, in spite of all the laws which seemingly govern our actions, our sorcery, our logic. I see only chaos in the world. If the book we seek tells me otherwise, then I shall gladly believe it. Until then, I will put my trust only in my sword and myself.”
Source: The Elric Cycle, The Weird of the White Wolf (1977), Chapter 1, “A Woman Who Would Risk Grief to Her Soul” (p. 451)

God , Night , Search , Universe

“Men may trust men, Prince Elric, but perhaps we’ll never have a truly sane world until men learn to trust mankind. That would mean the death of magic, I think.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 3, Chapter 7 “The Irony of It” (p. 413)
The Elric Cycle, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)

Learning , Thinking , World , Death

“All this is doubtless pre-ordained. Our destinies have been linked from the first.”

Michael Moorcock

“Such philosophies can lead to unhealthy fatalism,” said Terndrik of Hasghan. “Best believe our fates are our own, even if the evidence denies it.”
Book 1, Chapter 3 “Some Reference to the Three Who Are One” (p. 307)
The Elric Cycle, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)

“Everything you have done, my nobles, has been stupid. You have been cruel, greedy, careless of others’ lives and wills. You have been blind, thoughtless, provincial and unimaginative. It seems to me that a government so careless of anything but its own gratification should be at very least replaced.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 3, Chapter 4 “Certain Matters Resolved in Quarzhasaat” (p. 280)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Stupidity

“Fate is cruel, Oone. It would be better if it provided us with one unaltering path. Instead it forces us to make choices, never to know if those choices were for the best.”

Michael Moorcock

“We are mortals,” she said with a shrug. “That is our particular doom.”
Book 3, Chapter 3 “Celebrations at the Silver Flower Oasis” (p. 267)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Making love , Fate

“I now know that legends in themselves have no power. The power comes from the uses that the living make of the legend. The legends merely represent an ideal.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 3, Chapter 2 “The Destruction in the Fortress” (p. 260)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Making love

“We have a scanty notion of justice and the obligations of rule involve little more than inventing new terrors by which we may cow and control others. Power, I think, is a habit as terrible as the potion I must now sip in order to sustain myself. It feeds upon itself. It is a hungry beast, devouring those who would possess it and those who hate it—devouring even those who own it.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1, Chapter 5 “The Dreamthief’s Pledge” (p. 183)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Thinking , Hate , Justice

“We set high store by prophecies here in the desert. It seems that our longing for help might have coloured our reason.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1, Chapter 5 “The Dreamthief’s Pledge” (p. 181)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Help

“This was Elric’s dream, more coherent now than it had ever been. This was his dream and it was why he traveled the world, why he refused the power which was his, why he risked his life, his mind, his love and everything else he valued, for he believed that there was no life worth living that was not risked in pursuit of knowledge and justice. And this was why his fellow countrymen feared him. Justice was not obtained, he believed, by administration but by experience. One must know what it was to suffer humiliation and powerlessness; at least to some degree, before one could entirely appreciate its effect. One must give up power if one was to achieve true justice. This was not the logic of Empire, but it was the logic of one who truly loved the world and desired to see an age dawn when all people would be free to pursue their ambitions in dignity and self-respect.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1, Chapter 3 “On the Red Road” (p. 160)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Fear , Justice , Dreams , Suffering

“Here information and philosophies were exchanged, together with all manner of goods. This was a court whose energies were not devoted to maintaining itself unchanged for eternity, but to every kind of new idea and lively, humane discussion, which welcomed fresh thought not as a threat to its existence but as a very necessity to its continued well-being, whose wealth was devoted to experiment in the arts and sciences, to supporting those who were needy, to aiding thinkers and scholars. The Bright Empire’s brightness would come no longer from the glow of putrefaction but from the light of reason and good will.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1, Chapter 3 “On the Red Road” (p. 160)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Light , Support , Wealth , Art

“The albino reflected on the power of the human mind to build a fantasy and then defend it with complete determination as a reality.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 1, Chapter 2 “The Pearl at the Heart of the World” (p. 139)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Reality

“And upon those three lies was Elric’s destiny to be built, for it is only about things which concern us most profoundly that we lie clearly and with profound conviction.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 3, Chapter 5 “The Pale King’s Mercy” (p. 118)
The Elric Cycle, Elric of Melniboné (1972)

Lie

“Destiny can contain a few extra threads in her design and still accomplish her original aims.”

Michael Moorcock

Book 3, Chapter 4 “Two Black Swords” (p. 114)
The Elric Cycle, Elric of Melniboné (1972)

“It takes little intelligence to draw the obvious conclusion…”

Michael Moorcock

“Especially if one is blessed with only the barest information concerning other lands and peoples.”
Book 1, Chapter 2 “The Pearl at the Heart of the World” (p. 138)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Drawing , Intelligence

“Are you trying to talk peace terms?”

Michael Moorcock

Book 2, Chapter 5 “A Question of Attitudes” (p. 368)
Oswald Bastable, The Steel Tsar (1981)
Context: “I’ve given that up,” said Makhno. “It doesn’t appear to work. You mention peace and everyone tries to shoot you or jail you.”

Peace

“We are still ruled, in some ways, by our Church. We are a people more cursed by religion and its manifestations and assumptions than any other. The Steel Tsar, with his messianic socialism, offers us religion again, perhaps. You English have never had quite the same need for God. We have known despair and conquest too often to ignore Him altogether.”

Michael Moorcock

He shrugged. “Old habits, Mr Bastable. Religion is the panacea for defeat. We have a great tendency to rationalize our despair in mystical and utopian terms.”
Book 2, Chapter 4 “The Black Ships” (p. 361)
Oswald Bastable, The Steel Tsar (1981)

Despair , God , Religion , People

“There could be an end to all this, when the Lords of the Higher Worlds and all the machinery of cosmic mystery shall be no more. And perhaps that is why they fear mortals so much. The secret of their destruction, I suspect, lies in us, though we have yet to realize our own power.”

Michael Moorcock Erekosë

“And do you have a hint of what that power may be, Eternal Champion?” said Alisaard.
I smiled. “I think it is simply the power to conceive of a multiverse which has no need of the supernatural, which, indeed, could abolish it if so desired!”
Book 3, Chapter 2 (p. 646)
Erekosë, The Dragon in the Sword (1986)

World , Fear , Secret

“Chaos has her moods and whims, that’s all. As I told you, she cannot remain stable. It is in her nature to be forever changing.”

Michael Moorcock Erekosë

“While it is in the nature of Law,” Alisaard explained, “to be forever fixed. The Balance is there to ensure that neither Law nor Chaos ever gain complete ascendancy, for the one offers sterility while the other offers only sensation.”
Book 3, Chapter 1 (p. 626)
Erekosë, The Dragon in the Sword (1986)

Change , Mood , Nature

“You only need fear the bees if you’ve broken the law.”

Michael Moorcock

That familiar phrase was used to justify every encroachment on citizens’ liberty.
Source: Short fiction, The Lost Canal (2013), p. 346

Bee , Fear , Law

“Time and Matter are both ideas. Matter makes a more immediate impression on Man, but Time’s effects are longer lasting.”

Michael Moorcock book The Time Dweller

Source: The Time Dweller (p. 22), Short fiction, The Time Dweller (1969)

Idea , Making love , Time

“You fail to understand, my friend. We do not control time. If anything, it controls us. We simply measure it.”

Michael Moorcock book The Time Dweller

The Time Dweller (p. 15)
Short fiction, The Time Dweller (1969)

Time , Understanding

“I am already late, I fear. What time is it?”

Michael Moorcock book The Time Dweller

“Time? Why the present, of course.”
The Time Dweller (p. 13)
Short fiction, The Time Dweller (1969)

Fear , Time

“A threat to free speech. It was marvelous how they accepted the principles of democracy and rejected them at the same time by talk of mob action!”

Michael Moorcock

Source: The Winds of Limbo aka The Fireclown (1965), Chapter 4 (p. 151)

Democracy , Time

“Any forthcoming dispute was likely to be a battle between ignorance of one sort and ignorance of another.”

Michael Moorcock

Source: The Winds of Limbo aka The Fireclown (1965), Chapter 4 (p. 151)

“Everything dies eventually—but that shouldn’t stop us enjoying life while it is there to be enjoyed.”

Michael Moorcock

Source: The Wrecks of Time aka The Rituals of Infinity (1967), Chapter 6, “Klosterheim on a Mountain” (p. 49)

Life

“I have never had trouble with conflicting interpretations of my work. Once the story is published, it belongs to the reader.”

Michael Moorcock

Introduction (p. viii)
The Wrecks of Time aka The Rituals of Infinity (1967)

“Listening to the conversation, his faith in the stupidity of human nature was fully restored.”

Michael Moorcock

Source: The Winds of Limbo aka The Fireclown (1965), Chapter 17 (p. 252)

Faith , Nature , Stupidity

“Perhaps he was old and wise, perhaps he was just old.”

Michael Moorcock

Source: The Winds of Limbo aka The Fireclown (1965), Chapter 4 (p. 145)

“Some try to understand the world, while others seek to impose their understanding on it.”