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Top 180 Gene Wolfe Quotes (2025 Update)
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Gene Wolfe Quote: “He who had given all books into my keeping made me blind so that I should know in whose keeping the keepers stand.”

51. “He who had given all books into my keeping made me blind so that I should know in whose keeping the keepers stand.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I have tried hard to punish myself for that, and certain other things. No more. Let the Outsider punish me; we deceive ourselves when we think that we can measure out justice to ourselves. I wanted to end my guilt. What was just about that? I should feel guilty. I deserve it.”

52. “I have tried hard to punish myself for that, and certain other things. No more. Let the Outsider punish me; we deceive ourselves when we think that we can measure out justice to ourselves. I wanted to end my guilt. What was just about that? I should feel guilty. I deserve it.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “We would be blind, Auk. As blind as I. Because I have never had eyes of my own, I could not look out through yours. But I shall go with you, and guide you, and use your body to heal you, if I can. Look upon me, Auk.” “There’s nothing to see,” Auk protested. But there was: a stammering light so filled with hope and pleasure and wonder that Auk would willingly have seen nothing else, if only he could have watched it forever.”

53. “We would be blind, Auk. As blind as I. Because I have never had eyes of my own, I could not look out through yours. But I shall go with you, and guide you, and use your body to heal you, if I can. Look upon me, Auk.” “There’s nothing to see,” Auk protested. But there was: a stammering light so filled with hope and pleasure and wonder that Auk would willingly have seen nothing else, if only he could have watched it forever.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “And with them ten thousand men and women; those who, in seeking a private resurrection, had rendered their corpses forever imperishable lay here like drunkards after their debauch, their crystal sarcophagi broken, their limbs relaxed in grotesque disarray, their clothing rotted or rotting, and their eyes blindly fixed upon the sky.”

54. “And with them ten thousand men and women; those who, in seeking a private resurrection, had rendered their corpses forever imperishable lay here like drunkards after their debauch, their crystal sarcophagi broken, their limbs relaxed in grotesque disarray, their clothing rotted or rotting, and their eyes blindly fixed upon the sky.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Inside the silken tent, we knelt before a simple altar heaped with flowers. Ava prayed. I, knowing no prayers, spoke without sound to someone who seemed at times within me and at times, as the angel had said, infinitely remote.”

55. “Inside the silken tent, we knelt before a simple altar heaped with flowers. Ava prayed. I, knowing no prayers, spoke without sound to someone who seemed at times within me and at times, as the angel had said, infinitely remote.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “The hope in her voice now made me think of a flower growing in shadow.”

56. “The hope in her voice now made me think of a flower growing in shadow.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Nothing moved except the white bird, which flew back and forth with a slow, sad motion that seemed so weary that every time two wings rose I felt that it was about to fall into the sea, and the Short Sun, which crept down to the empty horizon as remorselessly as every man creeps toward his grave.”

57. “Nothing moved except the white bird, which flew back and forth with a slow, sad motion that seemed so weary that every time two wings rose I felt that it was about to fall into the sea, and the Short Sun, which crept down to the empty horizon as remorselessly as every man creeps toward his grave.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Seawrack is singing in the place that lies beyond this place. Listen there, and you cannot help but hear her.” With her I sang a few more words in the language of those whom Mora had once called the People of That Town. “’In our small house with shining windows, I waited till the tide brought your wreck through. Lie here beside me in the darkness. I’ll wake to life the corpse I say is.”

58. “Seawrack is singing in the place that lies beyond this place. Listen there, and you cannot help but hear her.” With her I sang a few more words in the language of those whom Mora had once called the People of That Town. “’In our small house with shining windows, I waited till the tide brought your wreck through. Lie here beside me in the darkness. I’ll wake to life the corpse I say is.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I have sometimes thought that the reason the trees are so quiet in the summer is that they are in a sort of ecstasy; it is in winter, when the biologists tell us they sleep, that they are most awake, because the sun is gone and they are addicts without their drug, sleeping restlessly and often waking, walking the dark corridors of forests searching for the sun.”

59. “I have sometimes thought that the reason the trees are so quiet in the summer is that they are in a sort of ecstasy; it is in winter, when the biologists tell us they sleep, that they are most awake, because the sun is gone and they are addicts without their drug, sleeping restlessly and often waking, walking the dark corridors of forests searching for the sun.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Before I had so much as opened any of the other volumes, I felt that pressure of time that is perhaps the surest indication we have left childhood behind.”

60. “Before I had so much as opened any of the other volumes, I felt that pressure of time that is perhaps the surest indication we have left childhood behind.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “A child, not knowing what is extraordinary and what is commonplace, usually lights midway between the two, finds interest in incidents adults consider beneath notice, and calmly accepts the most improbable occurrences.”

61. “A child, not knowing what is extraordinary and what is commonplace, usually lights midway between the two, finds interest in incidents adults consider beneath notice, and calmly accepts the most improbable occurrences.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Gold is the kindest of all hosts when it shines in the sky, but comes as an evil guest to those who receive it in the hand.”

62. “Gold is the kindest of all hosts when it shines in the sky, but comes as an evil guest to those who receive it in the hand.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “In ancient Greece, skeptics were those who thought, not those who scoffed.”

63. “In ancient Greece, skeptics were those who thought, not those who scoffed.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “My whole life experience feeds into my writing. I think that must be true for every writer. Clearly the Army and combat were major influences; just the same, you need to understand that many of the writers we have now couldn’t load a revolver.”

64. “My whole life experience feeds into my writing. I think that must be true for every writer. Clearly the Army and combat were major influences; just the same, you need to understand that many of the writers we have now couldn’t load a revolver.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “His quarry stands to the hunter as our clients to us; those who buy to the tradesman; the enemies of the Commonwealth to the soldier; the governed to the governors; men to women. All love that which they destroy.”

65. “His quarry stands to the hunter as our clients to us; those who buy to the tradesman; the enemies of the Commonwealth to the soldier; the governed to the governors; men to women. All love that which they destroy.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Feels good, this time of year,” he said. “The sun’s dead and don’t know it yet, but we do. If you’re killed, you’ll get to miss next winter, and if you’re hurt bad, you’ll get to stay inside. That’s what I always tell them. Of course, most of the fights are around midsummer’s eve, so it’s more appropriate then, so to speak. I don’t know if it comforts them or not, but it does no harm.”

66. “Feels good, this time of year,” he said. “The sun’s dead and don’t know it yet, but we do. If you’re killed, you’ll get to miss next winter, and if you’re hurt bad, you’ll get to stay inside. That’s what I always tell them. Of course, most of the fights are around midsummer’s eve, so it’s more appropriate then, so to speak. I don’t know if it comforts them or not, but it does no harm.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “We choose – or choose not – to be alone when we decide whom we will accept as our fellows, and whom we will reject. Thus an eremite in a mountain is in company, because the birds and coneys, the initiates whose words live in his ‘forest books,’ and the winds – the messengers of the Increate – are his companions. Another man, living in the midst of millions, may be alone, because there are none but enemies and victims around him.”

67. “We choose – or choose not – to be alone when we decide whom we will accept as our fellows, and whom we will reject. Thus an eremite in a mountain is in company, because the birds and coneys, the initiates whose words live in his ‘forest books,’ and the winds – the messengers of the Increate – are his companions. Another man, living in the midst of millions, may be alone, because there are none but enemies and victims around him.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I get a lot of people complaining about my ambiguity, often in cases which there is nothing ambigous at all. As far as I can see, people read it when they were half stoned and listening to the TV. Then they come back and say gee, it’s impossible to figure out what’s going on in a story.”

68. “I get a lot of people complaining about my ambiguity, often in cases which there is nothing ambigous at all. As far as I can see, people read it when they were half stoned and listening to the TV. Then they come back and say gee, it’s impossible to figure out what’s going on in a story.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I could speculate, but it would be just speculation and the kind of thing that you would get in with a science fiction story. And if I was doing a science fiction story then I would come up with what can go wrong with this system.”

69. “I could speculate, but it would be just speculation and the kind of thing that you would get in with a science fiction story. And if I was doing a science fiction story then I would come up with what can go wrong with this system.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “The Pancreator is infinitely far from us,” the angel said. “And thus infinitely far from me, through I fly so much higher than you. I guess at his desires – no one can do otherwise.”

70. “The Pancreator is infinitely far from us,” the angel said. “And thus infinitely far from me, through I fly so much higher than you. I guess at his desires – no one can do otherwise.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “There is something in all of us that has always been dead,” I said. “If only because we know that eventually we will die. All of us except the smallest children.”

71. “There is something in all of us that has always been dead,” I said. “If only because we know that eventually we will die. All of us except the smallest children.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “You can’t order the waves to be silent, madame,” Baldanders told her. “They are coming, and they are bitter with salt.”

72. “You can’t order the waves to be silent, madame,” Baldanders told her. “They are coming, and they are bitter with salt.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I nodded and grasped the woman by the arm; the cataphracts released her and turned away like silver automata.”

73. “I nodded and grasped the woman by the arm; the cataphracts released her and turned away like silver automata.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “God is the nest we build together.”

74. “God is the nest we build together.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Nations are like men – growing old, never young. My son had the misfortune to be a young man of an old nation.”

75. “Nations are like men – growing old, never young. My son had the misfortune to be a young man of an old nation.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “All the history of the stage is a struggle, the gasping of a beautiful child born at the point of death. The moralists, censorship and oppression, technology, and now poverty have all tried to destroy her. Only we, the actors and audiences, have kept her alive.”

76. “All the history of the stage is a struggle, the gasping of a beautiful child born at the point of death. The moralists, censorship and oppression, technology, and now poverty have all tried to destroy her. Only we, the actors and audiences, have kept her alive.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Ambiguity is necessary in some of my stories, not in all. In those, it certainly contributes to the richness of the story. I doubt that thematic closure is never attainable.”

77. “Ambiguity is necessary in some of my stories, not in all. In those, it certainly contributes to the richness of the story. I doubt that thematic closure is never attainable.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “He’s not rewarding us by talking to us. He’s talking to us because He has something to say to us directly, as opposed to the things He says to all humanity.”

78. “He’s not rewarding us by talking to us. He’s talking to us because He has something to say to us directly, as opposed to the things He says to all humanity.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Possibly I was mistaken, but it seemed to me that he went pale. At last he muttered, “It isn’t much of a ghost story, I’m afraid, but then I didn’t make it up.”

79. “Possibly I was mistaken, but it seemed to me that he went pale. At last he muttered, “It isn’t much of a ghost story, I’m afraid, but then I didn’t make it up.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Just as the room of the Inquisitor in Dr. Talos’s play, with its high judicial bench, lurked somewhere at the lowest level of the House Absolute, so we have each of us in the dustiest cellars of our minds a counter at which we strive to repay the debts of the past with the debased currency of the present.”

80. “Just as the room of the Inquisitor in Dr. Talos’s play, with its high judicial bench, lurked somewhere at the lowest level of the House Absolute, so we have each of us in the dustiest cellars of our minds a counter at which we strive to repay the debts of the past with the debased currency of the present.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Then I could not help wondering what the watching gods thought of us, with our clever masks and our jokes. What we think of crickets, perhaps, whose singing we hear with pleasure, though some of us smash them with our heels when they venture into sight.”

81. “Then I could not help wondering what the watching gods thought of us, with our clever masks and our jokes. What we think of crickets, perhaps, whose singing we hear with pleasure, though some of us smash them with our heels when they venture into sight.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “The brown book I carry says there is nothing stranger than to explore a city wholly different from all those one knows, since to do so is to explore a second and unsuspected self. I have found a thing stranger: to explore such a city only after one has lived in it for some time without learning anything of it.”

82. “The brown book I carry says there is nothing stranger than to explore a city wholly different from all those one knows, since to do so is to explore a second and unsuspected self. I have found a thing stranger: to explore such a city only after one has lived in it for some time without learning anything of it.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “For no man lives long when his dreams are dead.”

83. “For no man lives long when his dreams are dead.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “A young man seeks a woman and finds her and is great and dies to the world. Afterward he is never as great again, but the woman is a comfort to him, reminding him of the time that was, and he is a little again with her what once he was wholly.”

84. “A young man seeks a woman and finds her and is great and dies to the world. Afterward he is never as great again, but the woman is a comfort to him, reminding him of the time that was, and he is a little again with her what once he was wholly.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “The would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge; rational people know that things act of themselves or not at all.”

85. “The would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge; rational people know that things act of themselves or not at all.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I love you, but you are another death, a death that has stayed with me and befriended me as the old death in the lake did, but death all the same.”

86. “I love you, but you are another death, a death that has stayed with me and befriended me as the old death in the lake did, but death all the same.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Don’t nobody ever want it to rain,” the nearest of the sellers of beasts remarked philosophically, “but everybody wants to go on eatin’.”

87. “Don’t nobody ever want it to rain,” the nearest of the sellers of beasts remarked philosophically, “but everybody wants to go on eatin’.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “A legend, a lie, and a likelihood make a tradition’?”

88. “A legend, a lie, and a likelihood make a tradition’?”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “My men will follow me in battle,” I told him. “You’ll see.” “Of course they will. They know you’re a fine fighter. But where there is no danger, your danger will be from them.” I.”

89. “My men will follow me in battle,” I told him. “You’ll see.” “Of course they will. They know you’re a fine fighter. But where there is no danger, your danger will be from them.” I.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “True courtesy,” he continued, “earns the name. It is courtesy that is truthful. When the plebeian kneels to the monarch, he is offering his neck. He offers it because he knows his ruler can take it if he wishes. Common people like that say-or rather, they used to say, in older and better times – that I have no love of truth. But the truth is that it is precisely truth that I love, an open acknowledgment of fact.”

90. “True courtesy,” he continued, “earns the name. It is courtesy that is truthful. When the plebeian kneels to the monarch, he is offering his neck. He offers it because he knows his ruler can take it if he wishes. Common people like that say-or rather, they used to say, in older and better times – that I have no love of truth. But the truth is that it is precisely truth that I love, an open acknowledgment of fact.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Things opposite unite and appear to disappear. The potential for both remains. That is one of the greatest principles of the causes of things.”

91. “Things opposite unite and appear to disappear. The potential for both remains. That is one of the greatest principles of the causes of things.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “As I stared into the fire, it seemed more possible than I would have liked to believe that someday, perhaps after a blow on the head, perhaps for no discernable cause, my imagination and my reason might reverse their places – just as two friends who come every day to the same seats in some public garden might at last decide for novelty’s sake to exchange them.”

92. “As I stared into the fire, it seemed more possible than I would have liked to believe that someday, perhaps after a blow on the head, perhaps for no discernable cause, my imagination and my reason might reverse their places – just as two friends who come every day to the same seats in some public garden might at last decide for novelty’s sake to exchange them.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “A youthful American voice isn’t particularly challenging – I’ve been a young American, and they’re all around me. I can walk from my house to Barrington High School.”

93. “A youthful American voice isn’t particularly challenging – I’ve been a young American, and they’re all around me. I can walk from my house to Barrington High School.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “Readers have the power that professors pretend they wield. Millions of words of professorial contempt have failed to kill Kipling. Praising Shaw to the skies has been vain.”

94. “Readers have the power that professors pretend they wield. Millions of words of professorial contempt have failed to kill Kipling. Praising Shaw to the skies has been vain.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I was young, so that I desired high things only.”

95. “I was young, so that I desired high things only.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I was miserable before I knew I was no longer happy.”

96. “I was miserable before I knew I was no longer happy.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I am filthy. So is Doris, but we’ll bathe and change clothes and be clean. Your filth is within you. If it were gone, you’d collapse.”

97. “I am filthy. So is Doris, but we’ll bathe and change clothes and be clean. Your filth is within you. If it were gone, you’d collapse.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “I myself teach no one, knowing I would make my students stronger to destroy me. I advise you to follow the same course.”

98. “I myself teach no one, knowing I would make my students stronger to destroy me. I advise you to follow the same course.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “These chaps everyone’s been shouting at to change things, they’re the very chaps that do so well as things are. Think they’re going to make new rules for a game they always win? Not ruddy likely.”

99. “These chaps everyone’s been shouting at to change things, they’re the very chaps that do so well as things are. Think they’re going to make new rules for a game they always win? Not ruddy likely.”

Gene Wolfe Quote: “It is far easier to get all the good things that our lives have to offer than it is to deserve them. We seldom have much joy of them, however, unless we deserve them.”

100. “It is far easier to get all the good things that our lives have to offer than it is to deserve them. We seldom have much joy of them, however, unless we deserve them.”

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