Stephen Vincent Bent Quotes

Something begins, begins; Starlit and sunlit, something walks abroad In flesh and spirit and fire. Something is loosed to change the shaken world.

Stephen Vincent Bent

Outcasts of war, misfits, rebellious souls, Seekers of some vague kingdom in the stars They hide out in the hills and stir up trouble, Call themselves prophets, too, and prophesy That something new is coming to the world, The Lord knows what! Well, it's a long time coming, And, meanwhile, we're the wheat between the stones.

Stephen Vincent Bent

He shall not come to conquest, The conquest of kings, But in the bare stable He shall judge all things.

Stephen Vincent Bent

The time is time. The place is anywhere. The voices speak to you across the air To say that once again a child is born. A child is born.

Stephen Vincent Bent

I knew then that they had been men, neither gods nor demons. It is a great knowledge, hard to tell and believe. They were men they went a dark road, but they were men. I have been in the Place of the Gods and seen it! Now slay me, if it is the law but still I know they were men.

Stephen Vincent Bent

I went north I did not try to hide myself. When a god or a demon saw me, then I would die, but meanwhile I was no longer afraid. My hunger for knowledge burned in me there was so much that I could not understand.

Stephen Vincent Bent

Never have I been so much alone I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel's heap of winter nuts. There was no strength in my knowledge any more and I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird alone upon the great river, the servant of the gods.

Stephen Vincent Bent

My people are the Hill People. They are the men. I go into the Dead Places but I am not slain. I take the metal from the Dead Places but I am not blasted. I travel upon the god-roads and am not afraid.

Stephen Vincent Bent

I went fasting, as is the law. My body hurt but not my heart. When the dawn came, I was out of sight of the village. I prayed and purified myself, waiting for a sign. The sign was an eagle. It flew east. Sometimes signs are sent by bad spirits. I waited again on the flat rock, fasting, taking no food. I was very still I could feel the sky above me and the earth beneath. I waited till the sun was beginning to sink. Then three deer passed in the valley going east they did not mind me or see me. There was a white fawn with them a very great sign.

Stephen Vincent Bent

If the hunters think we do all things by chants and spells, they may believe so it does not hurt them. I was taught how to read in the old books and how to make the old writings that was hard and took a long time. My knowledge made me happy it was like a fire in my heart. Most of all, I liked to hear of the Old Days and the stories of the gods.

Stephen Vincent Bent

You will have money and all that money can buy.

Stephen Vincent Bent

A soul. A soul is nothing. Can you see it, smell it, touch it? No.

Stephen Vincent Bent

He knew that once you bested anybody like Mr. Scratch in fair fight, his power on you was gone. And he could see that Mr. Scratch knew it too.

Stephen Vincent Bent

Perhaps 'tis not strictly in accordance with the evidence ... but even the damned may salute the eloquence of Mr. Webster.

Stephen Vincent Bent

When the first wrong was done to the first Indian, I was there. When the first slaver put out for the Congo, I stood on her deck. Am I not in your books and stories and beliefs, from the first settlements on? Am I not spoken of, still, in every church in New England? 'Tis true the North claims me for a Southerner and the South for a Northerner, but I am neither. I am merely an honest American like yourself and of the best descent for, to tell the truth, Mr. Webster, though I don't like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours.

Stephen Vincent Bent
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