The
meaning of history lies not in the future but in the moment.
It is never anywhere but within our grasp. And if the history
of man, terminated, should turn out to have been but a brief
flicker in the midst of unnoticing oblivions let it at least
have been worthy of the moment in which it burned. But perhaps
it would prove to be a spark which would, in time, illuminate
a universe.
---Explorers of Gor
, p 230
Pity
He
threw down the ax, which rang on the stones of the road
to Ko-ro-ba. Zosk sank down and sat cross-legged in the
road, his gigantic frame shaken with sobs, his massive head
buried in his hands, his thick, guttural voice moaning with
distress. At such a time a man may not be spoken to, for
according to the Gorean way of thinking pity humiliates
both he who pities and he who is pitied. According to the
Gorean way, one may love but one may not pity.
---Outlaw of Gor
, p 31
Strangers
The
Gorean is suspicious of the stranger, particularly in the
vicinity of his native walls. Indeed, in Gorean the same
word is used for both stranger and enemy.
---Outlaw of Gor, p 49
Truth
and Honesty
I
am of the Caste of Warriors, and it is in our codes that
the only death fit for a man is that in battle, but I can
no longer believe that this is true, for the man I met once
on the road to Ko-ro-ba died well, and taught me that all
wisdom and truth does not lie in my own codes.
---Priest Kings of Gor
, p 14
`Do
you know who fears to tell the truth?' he asked. `No,' she
said. `A slave,' said Kamchak.
---Nomads of Gor
, p 168
`You
found your humanity,' said Samos. `I betrayed my codes!'
I cried. `It is only at such moments,' said Samos, `that
a man sometimes learns that all truth and all reality is
not written in one's own codes.'
---Raiders of Gor
, p 310
I
know of no language in which the truth may be spoken. The
truth can be seen, and felt, and known, but I do not think
it may be spoken. Each of us learns it, but none of us,
I think, can tell another what it is.
---Hunters of Gor
, p 145
Truth
not won is not possessed. We are not entitled to truths
for which we have not fought.
---Marauders of Gor
, p 7
Culture
decides what is truth, but truth, unfortunately, is unaware
of this. Cultures, mad and blind, can die upon the rocks
of truth. Why can truth not be the foundation of culture,
rather than its nemesis? Can one not build upon the stone
cliffs of reality rather than dash one's head against them?
---Explorers of Gor, p 11
Is
it not safer to cower in the caves of lies than to stand
upon the cliffs of truth, surveying the world? Yet when
one stands in the sunlight, and feels the winds of reality,
how dank and shameful seem the dark shelters of falsehood,
and how foolish it seems then to have once feared daylight
and fresh air.
---Fighting Slave of Gor
, p 103
But,
why? I asked myself. Should not, rather, one be more ashamed
by deceit than the truth? Can there truly be a greater honor
in hypocrisy than in honor? It does not seem so.
---Guardsman of Gor
, p 257
`Such
thoughts are surely to be reserved for the second or third
knowledge,' said another man. `I am a man,' said another.
`I repudiate the distinctions between knowledges. Knowledge
is one. It is only knowers who are many.' `I shall inquire
into truth as I please,' said another. `I am a free man.'
---Kajira of Gor
, p 387
Are
we not all victims of hearsay, even with respect to many
of our most profound `truths'? Of our thousands, and hundreds
of thousands, of such `truths,' how many can we say we have
personally earned? How many of us can determine the distance
of a planet or the structure of a molecule?
---Magicians of Gor
, p 182
A
last observation having to do with the tendency of some
Goreans to accept illusions and such as reality is that
the Gorean tends to take such things as honor and truth
very seriously. Given his culture and background, his values,
he is often easier to impose upon than would be many others.
For example, he is likely, at least upon occasion, to be
an easier mark for the fraud and charletan than a more suspicious,
cynical fellow. On the other hand, I do not encourage lying
to Goreans. They do not like it.
---Magicians of Gor, p 255
Goreans
are not stupid. It is difficult to fool them more than once.
They tend to remember... there would always be the dupes,
of one sort or another, and the opportunists, and the cowards,
with their rationalizations. But, too, I speculated, there
would be those of Ar to whom the Home Stone was a Home Stone,
and not a mere rock, not a piece of meaningless earth.
---Magicians of Gor, p 489