Civilization of course, implies organization up to a certain point. The freedom of any function is built upon system; and so long as Law and Order make it easier for a man to do his True Will, they are admirable. It is when system is adored for its own sake, or as a means of endowing mediocrities with power as such, that the “critical temperature” is attained.
Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears, Chapter LXXV: The A∴A∴ and the Planet
The borderlands changed shape in unprecedented ways. My nightmares started. The planet screamed.
Bogi Takács & Charlie Jane Anders, The Trans Space Octopus Congregation
“Look, J., despite all my efforts, I still can’t honestly say that I feel closer to God and to myself,” I tell him, with barely concealed exasperation. “That’s because, like everyone else on the planet, you believed that time would teach you to grow closer to God. But time doesn’t teach; it merely brings us a sense of weariness and of growing older.”
Paulo Coelho, Aleph
The sky was hardly infinite: she could see its pendulous, titanic folds, its shifting patterns, black on black. And if each planet or star had its own buffeting, fretful, whimsical god, how could the waking world survive?
Kij Johnson, The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
