Quotes from book
The Fall of Hyperion

The Fall of Hyperion
Dan Simmons

The Fall of Hyperion is the second novel in the Hyperion Cantos, a science fiction series by American author Dan Simmons. The novel, written in 1990, won both the 1991 British Science Fiction and Locus Awards. It was also nominated for the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.Set in the 29th century, the novel documents a pilgrimage to the planet Hyperion. The eight pilgrims intend to travel to the Valley of the Time Tombs, where the Shrike, a metallic creature alleged to grant one wish to the members of a pilgrimage, dwells. Powerful entities such as the Hegemony of Man and the AI TechnoCore seek to influence the pilgrims' journey.

“My own guess is that it’s a myth fueled by the same hunger for superstitious verities that drives other religions.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 11 (p. 91)

“In the end--when all else is dust--loyalty to those we love is all we can carry with us to the grave. Faith--true faith--was trusting in that love.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Variant: Sol remembered the dream, remembered his daughter’s hug, and realized that in the end—when all else is dust—loyalty to those we love is all we can carry with us to the grave.
Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 30 (p. 242)

“Its hard to die. Harder to live”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion

“Mobs have passions, not brains.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 32 (p. 266)

“I wish we had the technology to fight God on an equal basis,” he said in low, tight tones. “To beard him in his den. To fight back for all of the injustices heaped on humanity. To allow him to alter his smug arrogance or be blown to hell.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 29 (pp. 226-227)

“It was a dramatization of total chaos, a functional definition of confusion, an unchoreographed dance of sad violence. It was war.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 7 (p. 51)

“The place was part museum, part library, and part archive; I loved it at first sight…and smell, for here there were thousands of printed books, many very old indeed, and nothing smells quite as wonderful as old books.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 32 (p. 269)

“I learned that poets aren’t God, but if there is a God…or anything approaching a God…he’s a poet. And a failed one at that.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 45 (p. 504)

“The Great Change is when humankind accepts its role as part of the natural order of the universe instead of its role as a cancer.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 38 (p. 369)

“He knew what had to be done. It is not always the same as knowing what to do.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 34 (p. 310)

“There would be no more offerings. Not this day. Not any day. Humankind had suffered enough for its love of gods, its long search for God. He thought of the many centuries in which his people, the Jews, had negotiated with God, complaining, bickering, decrying the unfairness of things but always—always—returning to obedience at whatever the cost. Generations dying in the ovens of hatred. Future generations scarred by the cold fires of radiation and renewed hatred.
Not this time. Not ever again.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 30 (p. 237)

“Those who ignore history’s lessons in the ultimate folly of war are forced to do more than relive them…they may be forced to die by them.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 12 (p. 94)

“Christ may have lost his faith for a few seconds; He did not sell it in the marketplace for the trinkets of ego and curiosity.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 34 (p. 310)

“Sometimes,” said General Morpurgo, taking her hand, “dreams are all that separate us from the machines.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 43 (p. 474)

““Gold,” says the Consul, knowing that this is the only syllable that has held its power over the ages.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 35 (p. 316)

“Have you considered that these prophecies were not divine revelations, but merely manipulation from some secular power?”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 36 (p. 337)

“With a sudden clarity which went beyond the immediacy of his pain or sorrow, Sol Weintraub suddenly understood perfectly why Abraham had agreed to sacrifice Isaac, his son, when the Lord commanded him to do so.
It was not obedience.
It was not even to put the love of God above the love of his son.
Abraham was testing God.
By denying the sacrifice at the last moment, by stopping the knife, God had earned the right—in Abraham’s eyes and the hearts of his offspring—to become the God of Abraham.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 45 (p. 491)

“We are created for precisely this sort of suffering. In the end, it is all we are, those limpid tide pools of self-consciousness between crashing waves of pain.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 41 (p. 409)

“Doing a life study while drunk and in the process of being seduced is never a formula for quality art.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 6 (p. 43)

“Religion and ethics were not always—or even frequently—mutually compatible. The demands of religious absolutism or fundamentalism or rampaging relativism often reflected the worst aspects of contemporary culture or prejudices rather than a system which both man and God could live under with a sense of real justice.”

Dan Simmons book The Fall of Hyperion

Source: The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Chapter 45 (p. 490)

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