“They claim their labours are to build a heaven yet their heaven is populated with horrors. Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. A clock without a craftsman. It's too late. Always has been, always will be…too late.”

—  Alan Moore , book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "They claim their labours are to build a heaven yet their heaven is populated with horrors. Perhaps the world is not mad…" by Alan Moore?
Alan Moore photo
Alan Moore 274
English writer primarily known for his work in comic books 1953

Related quotes

Alan Moore photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“One always dies too soon — or too late. And yet, life is there, finished: the line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life.”

On meurt toujours trop tôt - ou trop tard. Et cependant la vie est là, terminée : le trait est tiré, il faut faire la somme. Tu n'es rien d'autre que ta vie.
Inès, Act 1, sc. 5
No Exit (1944)

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“But it was too late. He had angered Providence by resisting too many temptations. There was nothing left but heaven, where he would meet only those who, like him, had wasted earth.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

"O Russet Witch!"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
Context: Merlin went up-stairs very quietly at nine o'clock. When he was in his room and had closed the door tight he stood by it for a moment, his thin limbs trembling. He knew now that he had always been a fool.
"O Russet Witch!"
But it was too late. He had angered Providence by resisting too many temptations. There was nothing left but heaven, where he would meet only those who, like him, had wasted earth.

Friedrich Hölderlin photo

“What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it heaven.

As translated by Michael Hamburger”

Hyperion
Original: (de) Immerhin hat das den Staat zur Hölle gemacht, daß ihn der Mensch zu seinem Himmel machen wollte.

George Eliot photo
Peter Porter photo

“Redeemers always reach the world too late.
God dies, we live; God lives, we die. Our fate.”

Peter Porter (1929–2010) British poet

"A Tale of Two Pieties", in The Chair of Babel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) p. 51.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel photo

“Only one word more concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late.”

Preface xxx
Variant: When philosophy paints its grey on grey, then has a shape of life grown old. By philosophy's grey on grey it cannot be rejuvenated but only understood. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.
As translated by T. M. Knox, (1952) <!-- p. 13 -->
Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820/1821)
Context: Only one word more concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late. Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready. History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom. When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.

Jhumpa Lahiri photo
Nicole Krauss photo

Related topics