Quotes from book
Blade of Tyshalle

Blade of Tyshalle

Matthew Stover

Blade of Tyshalle is a science fantasy novel by American writer Matthew Stover, set seven years after the events of its predecessor Heroes Die. It is the second book in the ongoing Acts of Caine novel cycle. Like Heroes Die, it focuses on Hari Michaelson and his struggles on Earth and Overworld.

“Reasons are for peasants.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(XII.2) Del Rey, p. 411
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“When the gods would punish us, they answer our prayers.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

Del Rey p. 92
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“The capacity for personal freedom is a rare talent. Talent exists to be used. We do not ask sheep to be wolves; we, the wolves, do not ask ourselves to be sheep. Sheep can make such rules as happen to suit them--but it's foolishly naive to expect wolves to obey.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“We can each sit and wait to die, from the very day of our births. Those of us who do not do so, choose to ask--and to answer--the two questions that define every conscious creature: What do I want? and What will I do to get it? Which are, finally, only one question: What is my will? Caine teaches us that the answer is always found within our own experience; our lives provide the structure of the question, and a properly phrased question contains its own answer.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(XIV.3) Del Rey, p. 472
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“The man did not move because only immobility could hurt more than motion: the man held himself still because to move might lessen his suffering, and that he could not bear. For him only pain had meaning.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(XII.1) Del Rey, p. 408
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“A human life is defined by its relationship with others: by its duty to its species. In the face of this duty, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are meaningless. What you call individual rights are merely the cultural fantasy of a failed civilization.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(I.3) Del Rey, p. 74
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“Can't trust a fascist--truth is always your first sacrifice to the welfare of the state”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(I.3) Del Rey, p. 74
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“A religion that teaches you God is something outside the world--something separate from everything you see, smell, taste, touch, and hear--is nothing but a cheap hustle.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(VIII.4) Del Rey, p. 282
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“The problem with happy endings," Tan'elkoth said, "is that nothing is ever truly over.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(I.3) Del Rey, p. 89
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“All true stories end in death.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(X.6) Del Rey, p. 380
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“…I suspect that pain means little to you as your life--but both your life and your pain are very important to me.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(XII.2) Del Rey, p. 412
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“I read once, somewhere, that the way you know you've grown up is when your future death becomes a stone in your shoe: when you feel it with every step.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(0.8) Del Rey, p. 23
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“He did understand. Finally, fatally, he did. He had thought he was the master of history, that his fractal world-tree had grown according to his will. He had allowed himself to be deceived.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(XI.6) Del Rey, p. 404
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“Life is mere chance only when one allows it to be.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(V.8) Del Rey, p. 214
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“His destiny had betrayed him, had made him a destroyer on a scale that humbled even Caine. Destiny, he understood with bitter certainty, could not be trusted.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“Maybe. A powerful. Enough. Metaphor. Grows. Its own. Truth.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(VIII.4) Del Rey, p. 284
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)
Variant: Maybe. A powerful. Enough. Metaphor. Grows. Its own. Truth.

“Don't care about gods. Gods are irrelevant. What counts is people. What counts is having respect for each other.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(I.3) Del Rey, p. 75
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“Caine was no longer the icon of evil, the Enemy of God, the author of all the world's ills. He had become simply what he was: a ruthless, amoral man, now beaten--crushed by the world, just like any other.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“And in the name of this gospel of freedom, she had imprisoned herself; in the name of "living life honestly," she would go to her death. It was, he supposed, the only way she could make herself feel special.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(XIV.4) Del Rey, p. 473
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“The prize of individualism--its goal--is self-actualization, which is only another name for vanity. We do not admire men for achieving self-actualization; we admire self-actualization when its end result is a boon to humanity.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(I.3) Del Rey, p. 75
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)
Context: "I respect what is repectable," Tan'elkoth replied. "To ask for respect where none has been earned is childish maundering. And what is repectable, in the end, save service? Even your idol Jefferson is, in the end, measured by how well he served the species. The prize of individualism--its goal--is self-actualization, which is only another name for vanity. We do not admire men for achieving self-actualization; we admire self-actualization when its end result is a boon to humanity."

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