“The danger would be going back, or staying still. The only way out was through. The past was ruins, but the present was still in play.”
Source: The Magicians
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Lev Grossman 45
American novelist, journalist 1969Related quotes

Eddie Van Halen in April 1996, in an interview with Guitar World, when asked about how he went from playing his first open A chord to playing "Eruption" http://www.guitarworld.com/archive-billy-corgan-interviews-eddie-van-halen-1996?page=1

The Golden Man (1954)
Context: "He can look ahead. See what's coming. He can — prethink. Let's call it that. He can see into the future. Probably he doesn't perceive it as the future."
"No," Anita said thoughtfully. "It would seem like the present. He has a broader present. But his present lies ahead, not back. Our present is related to the past. Only the past is certain, to us. To him, the future is certain. And he probably doesn't remember the past, any more than any animal remembers what happened."
"As he develops," Baines said, "as his race evolves, it'll probably expand its ability to prethink. Instead of ten minutes, thirty minutes. Then an hour. A day. A year. Eventually they'll be able to keep ahead a whole lifetime. Each one of them will live in a solid, unchanging world. There'll be no variables, no uncertainty. No motion! They won't have anything to fear. Their world will be perfectly static, a solid block of matter."
"And when death comes," Anita said, "they'll accept it. There won't be any struggle; to them, it'll already have happened."

“There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.”

Man in the Modern Age (1933)
Context: The vicious circle of dread of war which leads the nations to arm themselves for self-protection, with the result that bloated armaments ultimately lead to the war which they were intended to avert, can be broken in either of two conceivable ways. There might arise a unique world power, brought into being by the unification of all those now in possession of weapons, and equipped with the capacity to forbid the lesser and unarmed nations to make war. On the other hand, it may arise by the working of a fate to us still inscrutable which, out of ruin, will disclose a way towards the development of a new human being. To will the discovery of this way would be blind impotence, but those who do not wish to deceive themselves will be prepared for the possibility.<!-- p. 97

Bob Dylan: The Song Talk Interview http://www.interferenza.com/bcs/interw/1991zollo.htm by Paul Zollo (1991)

As quoted by Siviwe Feketha in Mandela is no more. He is dead, with his party, says Malema Mandela is no more. He is dead, with his party, says Malema https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/mandela-is-no-more-he-is-dead-with-his-party-says-malema-16241907, www.iol.co.za (26 July 2018)