
“The blind man sits in the dark, but for guests he turns on the light.”
12 Years Before Now, In Jerusalem, the Skies are Lower (1991).
Source: Space Chantey (1968), Ch. 6
Context: Something was working in Roadstrum's little ape head. When he had been a man he had always known when it was time for action; particularly he had always known the last moment when action was still possible. He knew now that that moment was come very near. … Then a blinding light burst upon Roadstrum, and he saw the truth of the situation. Many things Roadstrum was not, and it was sometimes wondered why he was the natural leader of all the men. He was their leader because he was a man on whom the blinding light sometimes descended.
“The blind man sits in the dark, but for guests he turns on the light.”
12 Years Before Now, In Jerusalem, the Skies are Lower (1991).
Cassandra in A Trojan Ending (London: Constable, 1937)
Source: The Heritage Universe, Resurgence (2002), Chapter 16, “And Then There Were None” (p. 187)
“That night the blind man dreamt that he was blind.”
Source: Blindness (1995), p. 15
“Sometimes, he thought, real love is silent as well as blind.”
Variant: Sometimes [... ] real love is silent as well as blind.
Source: The Stand
Why I am an atheist? (1930)
Context: Any man who stands for progress has to criticize, disbelieve and challenge every item of the old faith. Item by item he has to reason out every nook and corner of the prevailing faith. If after considerable reasoning one is led to believe in any theory or philosophy, his faith is welcomed. His reasoning can be mistaken, wrong, misled and sometimes fallacious. But he is liable to correction because reason is the guiding star of his life. But mere faith and blind faith is dangerous: it dulls the brain, and makes a man reactionary.
Autobiographical Dictation (1906).
Variant: The only reason why God created man is because he was disappointed with the monkey.