“He had been through a good deal in the course of the Great Quest — he had seen beautiful things and horrible things — but up until now he had not known that one and the same creature can be both, that beauty can be terrifying.”
Source: The Neverending Story
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Michael Ende 26
German author 1929–1995Related quotes
Source: The Underland Chronicles, Gregor and the Code of Claw (2007), p. 409
Context: Gregor turned on the television and flipped through the channels. He stopped at the news. A bomb had blown up in a marketplace somewhere, killing forty-nine. There were body parts and smoke and relatives wailing. The next story was about refugees dying on the road, driven from their homes by an enemy army. The news anchor was just starting to show a grainy video of a soldier who had been taken hostage when his mother reached in and switched off the television. She looked so sad. "I think you've seen enough, Gregor." It had all looked pretty familiar. The bodies, the fear, the desperation. These things had always been here in the Overland, he supposed, but he had never really paid any attention to them until now.
“Later he had seen the things that he could never think of and later still he had seen much worse.”
The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
Source: The Riverworld series, The Dark Design (1977), Ch. 67
Source: The Autobiography of My Mother
Source: Corridors (1982), p. 145 in The Nebula Awards 18 edited by Robert Silverberg
“And wishes he had known these things
while still alive.”
"Temporary And Eternal" - Live performance, later used on the compilation album The Keep (16 May 1995) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiIqnvFAoHs
Equipoise (1993)
Context: He is broken, far from free
Words were spoken, 'tween him and me:
"I had friends, yes, I was admired
I'm so old now, feel so tired."
Well he walks to the gate and he looks behind
at life in rewind
And wishes he had known these things
while still alive.