THINGS

gistfile1.txt

"Certain mystes aver that the real world has been constructed by the
human mind, since our ways are governed by the artificial categories
into which we place essentially undifferentiated things, things
weaker than our words for them.
...
We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent
us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.
When soldiers take their oath they are given a coin, an asimi
stamped with the profile of the Autarch. Their acceptance of that
coin is their acceptance of the special duties and burdens of
military life—they are soldiers from that moment, though they may
know nothing of the management of arms. I did not know that then,
but it is a profound mistake to believe that we must know of such
things to be influenced by them, and in fact to believe so is to
believe in the most debased and superstitious kind of magic. The
would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge;
rational people know that things act of themselves or not at all.”
- Gene Wolfe