Burton sighed, laughed loudly, and said, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." Another fairy tale to give men hope . The old religions have been discredited although some refuse to face even that fact so new ones must be invented.

Philip Jose Farmer

Categorized in : Men Giving Faces

All the human beings I met were either sure that there would be no afterlife or else that they would get preferential treatment in the hereafter.

Philip Jose Farmer

afterlife treatment would-be

By now you must have accepted the fact that your religion , in fact, none of the Earthly religions, truly knew what the afterlife would be. All made guesses, and then established these as articles of faith . Though, in a sense, some were near the mark, if you accept their revelations as symbolic .

Philip Jose Farmer

afterlife would-be facts

Burton did not believe in miracles . Nothing happened that could not be explained by physical principles if you knew all the facts .

Philip Jose Farmer

miracle principles believe

Call me Meier," Goring said, but he did not pause to explain the joke .

Philip Jose Farmer

call-me jokes said

Dreams haunted The Riverworld.

Philip Jose Farmer

dream

Burton, though an infidel, made it his business to investigate thoroughly every religion. Know a man's faith , and you knew at least half the man. Know his wife, and you knew the other half.

Philip Jose Farmer

wife half men

Strong blasphemers thrive only when strong believers thrive.

Philip Jose Farmer

believer thrive strong

Let those who think the soul is shallow rail, They must be warned before they dare to leap They'll plunge into the twilight depths where sweep In ceaseless thirst great teeth too swift to fail.

Philip Jose Farmer

soul twilight thinking

The truth is that Trout, like Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury and many others, writes parables. These are set in frames which have become called, for no good reason, science fiction. A better generic term would be 'future fairy tales'. And even this is objectionable, since many science fiction stories take place in the present or the past, far and near.

Philip Jose Farmer

fiction-stories writing past

Give us power, give us light To holdall love within our breast's small space.

Philip Jose Farmer

space light life

Prometheus, I have no Titan's might,

Philip Jose Farmer

heart night life

One thing is sure, O comrades, that the love

Philip Jose Farmer

fighting stars life

Despite my vast interest in other universes and new ideas and space, travel and time travel, which by the way I think is impossible, the basic thing is human character, which is the main thing of most writers.

Philip Jose Farmer

writing character thinking

Confucius once said that a bear could not fart at the North Pole without causing a big wind in Chicago.

Philip Jose Farmer

chicago wind science

Miles above the Earth we know , Fancy's rocket roars. Below, Here and Now are needles which Sew a pattern black as pitch, Waiting for the rocket's light.

Philip Jose Farmer

black light waiting

Now we have lit a candle to the power Of atoms; now we know we're heirs of light Itself.

Philip Jose Farmer

heirs atoms light

Sawbeaked epitome of bodiless Idea, tossed by gusts of ether, dive Through abstract mists and raid the sea of fact Eat rich strange fish, grow long bright feathers, press Form's flesh around thought's rib, and so derive From the act of beauty, beauty of the act.

Philip Jose Farmer

sea long ideas

Reader, pray that soon this Iron Age Will crumble, and Beauty escape the rusting cage.

Philip Jose Farmer

iron praying age

Human beings are part of nature. Anything they do is natural. It's impossible for anything in nature to do anything unnatural.

Philip Jose Farmer

nature men art