Men, Kellhus had once told her, were like coins: they had two sides. Where one side of them saw, the other side of them was seen, and though all men were both at once, men could only truly know the side of themselves that saw and the side of others that was seen–they could only truly know the inner half of themselves and the outer half of others. At first Esmenet thought this foolish. Was not the inner half the whole, what was only imperfectly apprehended by others? But Kellhus bid her to think of everything she’d witnessed in others. How many unwitting mistakes? How many flaws of character? Conceits couched in passing remarks. Fears posed as judgements …The shortcomings of men–their limits–were written in the eyes of those who watched them. And this was why everyone seemed so desperate to secure the good opinion of others–why everyone played the mummer. They knew without knowing that what they saw of themselves was only half of who they were. And they were desperate to be whole. The measure of wisdom, Kellhus had said, was found in the distance between these two selves. Only afterward had she thought of Kellhus in these terms. With a kind of surpriseless shock, she realized that not once–not once! –had she glimpsed shortcomings in his words or actions. And this, she understood, was why he seemed limitless, like the ground, which extended from the small circle about her feet to the great circle about the sky. He had become her horizon. For Kellhus, there was no distance between seeing and being seen. He alone was whole. And what was more, he somehow stood from without and saw from within. He made whole … .R. Scott Bakker
About This Quote
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. I often think about this when I visit my parents. I talk to my mom on the phone almost everyday, but when she calls me she always says “I love you”. This is not a lie.
She means it. And when I see her, even if she looks tired and distant, I know that she loves me. This is because I have seen her in her true form, which is very far from the form in which I usually see her.
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Source: The Warrior Prophet
Some Similar Quotes
- A day without laughter is a day wasted.
- You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.
- One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and...
- There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
- You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.
More Quotes By R. Scott Bakker
- The thoughts of all men arise from the darkness. If you are the movement of your soul, and the cause of that movement precedes you, then how could you ever call your thoughts your own? How could you be anything other than a slave to...
- Any fool can see the limits of seeing, but not even the wisest know the limits of knowing. Thus is ignorance rendered invisible, and are all Men made fools.
- So he came to realize that learning a language was perhaps the most profound thing a man could do. Not only did it require wrapping different sounds around the very movement of your soul, it involved learning things somehow already known, as though much of...
- Though all men be equally frail before the world, the differences between them are terrifying.
- Here we find further argument for Gotagga’s supposition that the world is round. How else could all men stand higher than their brothers?