Some extracts from Lem, the wonderfully pessimistic MD, mathematician and sci-fi writer from Poland:
"Genius is not so much a light as it is a constant awareness of the surrounding gloom, and its typical cowardice is to bathe in its own glory and avoid, as much as possible, looking out beyond its boundary."--
His Master's Voice, 1968.
"We all know that we are material creatures, subject to the laws of physiology and physics, and not even the power of all our feelings combined can defeat those laws. All we can do is detest them. The age-old faith of lovers and poets in the power of love, stronger than death, that
finis vitae sed non amoris, is a lie, useless and not even funny. So must one be resigned to being a clock that measures the passage of time, now out of order, now repaired, and whose mechanism generates despair and love as soon as its maker sets it going? Are we to grow used to the idea that every man relives ancient torments, which are all the more profound because they grow comic with repetition? That human existence should repeat itself, well and good, but that it should repeat itself like a hackneyed tune, or a record a drunkard keeps playing as he feeds coins into the jukebox..."--
Solaris, 1961.
"To those who do not understand us we cannot be the bearers of good tidings. Saintly intentions cannot be demonstrated as long as they remain only intentions. Evil, on the other hand,
can be demonstrated, by causing harm."--
Fiasco, 1986.
"I have no use [...] for gold or silver, and the way you have to talk to me is delicately and with respect, as I am a pirate with a Ph.D., well-educated and by nature extremely high-strung."--
Cyberiad, 1967.
"...the view of the city, the red mist and the breaks in the mist made by funnels of light, gusts of hot air, the inhaling and exhaling of a million, the hanging squares, malls, avenues, skyscrapers with wings of fire, the different levels with different colors [...] all these pictures were and were not themselves, as in dreams sometimes, they were both a reminder and an avoidance of the thing I dared not touch. Because, throughout, I had tried to find in myself an acceptance of what I could not accept. But that had been before, like a dream."--
Back From the Stars, 1961.
"The fundamental traits of my character I consider to be cowardice, malice and pride. As it turned out, this triumvirate had at its disposal a certain talent, which concealed it and ostensibly transformed it, and intelligence assisted in this--intelligence is one of life's most effective instruments for masking inborn traits, once it decides that such a course is desirable."--
His Master's Voice, 1968.
Lem is the only author with five books in my Top 100 list.
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