“Meanwhile, the Wheel turns. The humble are exalted and the mighty are humbled. The best are inevitably defeated, and the scum always rises to the top. Here is the source of all the world’s pain, that restless turning, ever accelerating, always bringing us around again to where we were before, but older, changed, scarred, and sorrowful. Had I only known the identity of the whisperer, I would never have listened. The Wheel would not have been set in motion.”

Source: The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Chapter 13 (p. 232)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Meanwhile, the Wheel turns. The humble are exalted and the mighty are humbled. The best are inevitably defeated, and th…" by Michael Swanwick?
Michael Swanwick photo
Michael Swanwick 96
American science fiction author 1950

Related quotes

Gautama Buddha photo

“Just as the eldest son of a wheel-turning monarch properly keeps in motion the wheel of sovereignty set in motion by his father, so do you, Sāriputta, properly keep in motion the Wheel of Dhamma set in motion by me.”

Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism

Vangisasamyutta, as translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi (2000), p. 287
Source: Pali Canon, Sutta Pitaka, Samyutta Nikaya (Connected Discourses)

Carrie Underwood photo

“It's the wheel of the world - turning around.”

Carrie Underwood (1983) American country music singer

From Wheel of the World from the album Carnival Ride (2007). [Misattributed: performer not credited as writer.]

Stephen King photo
Arthur Conan Doyle photo
Edie Brickell photo

“Wheels keep on turning and turning and turning
And nothing's disturbing the way they go around.”

Edie Brickell (1966) singer from the United States

"The Wheel"
Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1988)

Stephen King photo

“Life is a wheel, and it always comes back around to where it started.”

Variant: Life was a wheel, its only job was to turn, and it always came back to where it started.
Source: Revival

“In any broth, the scum always rises to the top.”

Source: Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde, Ch. 22

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“Turn, turn, my wheel! All things must change
To something new, to something strange”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Kéramos http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/TheCompletePoeticalWorksofHenryWadsworthLongfellow/chap22.html, st. 3 (1878).
Context: Turn, turn, my wheel! All things must change
To something new, to something strange;
Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
To-morrow be to-day.

Starhawk photo

“We turn the Wheel to bring the light. We call the sun from the womb of night. Blessed Be!”

Starhawk (1951) American author, activist and Neopagan

The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess (1979)
Context: This is the stillness behind motion, when time itself stops; the center is also the circumference of all. We are awake in the night. We turn the Wheel to bring the light. We call the sun from the womb of night. Blessed Be!

Related topics