It was strange to us that none of these three victims made any attempt to resist the attack. Indeed, not one inhabitant in any of these worlds considered for a moment the possibility of resistance. In every case the attitude to disaster seemed to express itself in such terms as these:" To retaliate would be to wound our communal spirit beyond cure. We choose rather to die. The theme of spirit that we have created must inevitably be broken short, whether by the ruthlessness of the invader or by our own resort to arms. It is better to be destroyed than to triumph in slaying the spirit. Such as it is, the spirit that we have achieved is fair; and it is indestructibly woven into the tissue of the cosmos. We die praising the universe in which at least such an achievement as ours can be. We die knowing that the promise of further glory outlives us in other galaxies. We die praising the Star Maker, the Star Destroyer. .Olaf Stapledon
About This Quote
In the works of science fiction, there is a common theme of a group of people being stranded on a distant planet and being unable to return home. This is usually the point where they decide to seek revenge on the people who left them behind, and this is where the Star Destroyer idea comes from. In many cases, these people end up creating a super weapon that devastates everything in its path, creating a sort of “spirit” that lasts hundreds or thousands or millions of years.
Source: Star Maker
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