Source: V. (1963), Chapter Seven, Part VII
Context: He had decided long ago that no Situation had any objective reality: it only existed in the minds of those who happened to be in on it at any specific moment. Since these several minds tended to form a sum total or complex more mongrel than homogeneous, The Situation must necessarily appear to a single observer much like a diagram in four dimensions to an eye conditioned to seeing the world in only three. Hence the success or failure of any diplomatic issue must vary directly with the degree of rapport achieved by the team confronting it. This had led to the near obsession with teamwork which had inspired his colleagues to dub him Soft-show Sydney, on the assumption that he was at his best working in front of a chorus line.
But it was a neat theory, and he was in love with it. The only consolation he drew from the present chaos was that his theory managed to explain it.
Source: Leviathan Wakes (2011), Chapter 41 (p. 412)
“If anything ever happened to any one who eagerly longed and never hoped, that is a true pleasure to the mind.”
Si quicquam cupido optantique optigit umquam
insperanti, hoc est gratum animo proprie.
CVII, lines 1–2
Carmina
“In life, only those who are capable of upsetting everything, at any moment, advance powerfully.”
Original: Nella vita, solo chi è capace di sconvolgere tutto, in qualsiasi momento, avanza prepotentemente.
Source: prevale.net
Part 3, Section 12
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Book 1: Of the understanding
"A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz", in The Aleph (1949); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998)
Variant: Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment — the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
