“The idea of Curious Yellow, of surrender to a higher cause, seems to appeal to a certain small subset of humanity. These people manipulate the worm, customizing its payload to establish quisling dictatorships in its shadow, and the horrors these gauleiters invent in its service are far worse than the crude but direct tactics the original worm used.”

— Charles Stross , book Glasshouse

Source: Glasshouse (2006), Chapter 12, “Bag” (p. 210)

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Charles Stross 211

British science fiction writer and blogger 1964

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“Do not think that by worshipping with deveikut you are greater than another. You are like any other creature, created for the sake of His worship, blessed be He. God gave a mind to the other just as He gave a mind to you. What makes you superior to a worm? The worm serves the Creator with all its mind and strength! Man, too, is a worm and maggot, as it is written "I am a worm and no man." (Psalms 22:7) If God had not given you intelligence you would not be able to worship Him but like a worm. Thus you are no better than a worm, and certainly [no better] than [other] people. Bear in mind that you, the worm and all other small creatures are considered as equals in the world. For all were created and have but the ability given to them by the blessed Creator. Always keep this matter in mind.”

Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760) Jewish mystical rabbi, the founder of Hasidic Judaism

The testament of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, translated by (Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society, 1998), ch. 12.

“The image, more interesting than its original, has become the original. The shadow has become the substance.”

Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American historian

Source: The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961), p. 204.

“Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter.”

Martin Luther Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott

Psalm. Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (translated by Frederic H. Hedge), Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). "On the 16th of April, 1521, Luther entered the imperial city [of Worms]... On his approach… the Elector's chancellor entreated him, in the name of his master, not to enter a town where his death was decided. The answer which Luther returned was simply this". Bunsen, Life of Luther

“To suggest that God specifically created a worm to torture small African children is blasphemy as far as I can see.”

David Attenborough (1926) British broadcaster and naturalist

Interview in Metro 29 Jan 2013

“The larch… is not only preserved from decay and the worm by the great bitterness of its sap, but also it cannot be kindled with fire”

Vitruvius book De architectura

Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book II, Chapter IX, Sec. 14
Context: The larch... is not only preserved from decay and the worm by the great bitterness of its sap, but also it cannot be kindled with fire nor ignite of itself, unless like stone in a limekiln it is burned with other wood.... This is because there is a very small proportion of the elements of fire and air in its composition, which is a dense and solid mass of moisture and the earthy, so that it has no open pores through which fire can find its way... Further, its weight will not let it float in water.

“The radiant future stretches forth its arms toward us, and binds us to be willing servants to its work, willingly to accept those limitations of the individual will which are indispensable in the service of a far-off cause, a service which at the same time disciplines and ennobles the individual himself.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Founding Address (1876), Some Characteristics of the American Ethical Movement (1925)

“When a worm is suddenly illuminated and dashes like a rabbit into its burrow—to use the expression employed by a friend—we are at first led to look at the action as a reflex one.”

Charles Darwin book The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms

Source: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 23. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=38&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

“Alexander: I myself was educated in Italy. My doctorate in philosophy is from the University of Padua.
Renne: Really? Philosophy?
Alexander: My dissertation was on worms.
Renne: Worms the philosopher?
Alexander: No, just worms.
Renne: Ah, the philosophy of worms.
Alexander: Not at all. Worms have no philosophy, as far as is known.”

Tom Stoppard (1937) British playwright

The Coast of Utopia: Voyage (2002)

“While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy, "Man",
And its hero the Conqueror Worm.”

Edgar Allan Poe book The Conqueror Worm

"The Conqueror Worm" (1843), st. 5.

“It awes by the majesty of its truths, it agitates by the force of its compunctions, it penetrates the heart by the tenderness of its appeals, and it casts over the abyss of thought, the shadow of its eternal grandeur.”

Henry Giles (1809–1882) Irish minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 140.

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