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From Whence The Rivers Run

Book by T.M Cicinski · 13 quotes · Gods, Nature, Africa

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From Whence The Rivers Run Quotes

“The lion,” she thought, “is very noble. There is no creature so noble. The elephant is noble too and the elands and the jaguar. But they are nothing compared to the lion. The crocodile is not noble at all. It is an old evil like the serpent in the Garden of Eden; cunning and full of malice, and even when it hunts, it does so in a way that shows no true courage. But the lion…” She sighed. “The lion is wonderful and all the beasts of the earth are not much beside it.”

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“If a person sins when they kills another person, why is it that they do not sin when they kill a beast?” Idalina looked across at her, frowned slightly and then shrugged. “They do.” “But people do not speak of it as sin,” the girl persisted. “No,” Idalina said. “That is because people do not see themselves in the beasts as they do in other people. If they did, they would say that it is the same.”

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“Are human beings noble like the lion? Or are they like the crocodile? I suppose it depends on the person. Many are like the crocodile, but there are some who are like the lion. Once there were more. But as a species we have become like the crocodile in our greed. Now we do not take things because we need them, but just to take them, or for sport which is wrong.”

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“Nature is cruel and vicious and that that is why man was given dominion over the natural world, because man was the only creature that God could trust to bring justice to it.” Idalina frowned at this, but nonetheless she returned her arm to her granddaughter’s shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze. “Nature is certainly cruel,” she said, in a voice which sounded strangely cold and detached. “But make no mistake; man is crueller. And the gods: the gods are cruellest of all.”

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“That God, or gods existed, she had never doubted. If her husband’s death however had done anything it was to confirm to her the belief she had developed as a child, that the gods, though extant, were not worthy of worship; that by their inaction they had shown that they cared little for humanity. Probably, she had always supposed, they were too absorbed in their own lives to do anything but occasionally watch from afar as people suffered and struggled against the consequences of their inaction.”

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“If the bible is correct and Noah saved one pair of each of the animals we have still on earth by taking them aboard his ark, I wonder what madness made him choose to save the mosquito. That was a great foolishness on his part. After all, what purpose do they serve? The birds eat them, I suppose, but there are other insects they might eat instead, that do not bite me before they are eaten.”

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“Idalina loved the river. It was the only constant thing she knew of, except for the high mountains. People lived and died and during their lives they altered the landscape with their houses and roads. Trees were planted and cut down. The herds came and went. Yet the river flowed still as it had flowed when she was a girl and when her mother and grandmother had been girls before her and through each generation to the beginning of time.”

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“… there were wise men I knew when I was young, who taught me that the stars are the eyes of the gods and angels which dwell above and that amongst them the spirits of our ancestors live, those who were granted a place in heaven. It is from there that they watch over us. Whether our actions please them or anger them, of course we cannot know. But whatever you do in your life, you should remember that you are not doing so unseen, and therefore you must never do a thing that you are not prepared to defend if you yourself are called to heaven.”

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