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Quote by Olaf Stapledon

“The cosmos exploded, actualizing its potentiality of space and time. The centers of power, like fragments of a bursting bomb, were hurled apart. But each one retained in itself, as a memory and a longing, the single point of the whole; and each mirrored in itself aspects of all the others throughout all the cosmical space and time.”

Quote by Olaf Stapledon

Work

Last and First Men, & Star Maker: Two Science-fiction Novels

In 'Last and First Men', the narrative follows the evolution of humanity over billions of years, culminating in a grand, cosmic journey. 'Star Maker' delves into the creation of artificial life and the pursuit of knowledge beyond the confines of Earth. more

Author

Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon

Olaf Stapledon, born on May 10, 1886, in Scotland, and died on September 6, 1950, was a philosopher and writer. His works encompassed cosmic philosophy, life philosophy, and socialist ideas, which had a profound impact on later generations. more

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“It is enough to have been created, to have embodied for a moment the infinite and tumultuously creative spirit. It is infinitely more than enough to have been used, to have been the rough sketch for some perfected creation. Looking into the future, I saw without sorrow, rather with quiet interest, my own decline and fall.”

“[S]ervants of darkness had no lasting joy in their service. In all of them the will for darkness was a perversion of the will for the light. In all but a few maniacs the satisfaction of the will for darkness was at all times countered by a revulsion which the unhappy spirit either dared not confess even to itself, or else rejected as cowardly and evil.”

“[T]he individual in whom the will for the light is strong and clear finds his heart inextricably bound up with the struggle of the forces of light in his native place and time. Much as he may long for the opportunity of fuller self- expression in a happier world, he knows that for him self-expression is impossible save in the world in which his mind is rooted. The individual in whom the will for the light is weak soon persuades himself that his opportunity lies elsewhere.”