The universe was exploding, each particle away from the next, hurtling us into dark and lonely space, eternally tearing us away from each other - child out of the womb, friend away from friend, moving from each other, each through his own pathway towards the goal-box of solitary death.

Daniel Keyes

Categorized in : Moving Children Lonely

Strange about learning; the farther I go the more I see that I never knew even existed. A short while ago I foolishly thought I could learn everything - all the knowledge in the world. Now I hope only to be able to know of its existence, and to understand one grain of it. Is there time?

Daniel Keyes

strange able world

I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.

Daniel Keyes

knows wanted feels

I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.

Daniel Keyes

life-or-death ifs fear

Intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn.

Daniel Keyes

intelligence-and-education affection damn

Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love. This is something else I've discovered for myself very recently. I present it to you as a hypothesis: Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis. And I say that the mind absorbed in and involved in itself as a self-centered end, to the exclusion of human relationships, can only lead to violence and pain.

Daniel Keyes

psychosis pain self

...Don't feel sorry for me. I'm glad I had a second chance in life like you said to be smart because I learned a lot of things that I never knew were in this world, and I'm grateful I saw it even for a little bit.

Daniel Keyes

smart grateful sorry

There are a lot of people who will give money or materials, but very few who will give time and affection.

Daniel Keyes

affection giving people

So this is how a person can come to despise himself-knowing he's doing the wrong thing and not being able to stop.

Daniel Keyes

despise able knowing

Now I understand that one of the important reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you've believed in all your life aren't true, and that nothing is what it appears to be.

Daniel Keyes

important college reason

People think it's funny when a dumb person can't do things the same way they can.

Daniel Keyes

dumb people thinking

How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibilty, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes—how such people think nothing of abusing a man with low intelligence.

Daniel Keyes

eye men thinking

I can't help but admire the structural linguists who have carved out for themselves a linguistic discipline based on the deterioration of written communication. Another case of men devoting their lives to studying more and more about less and less - filling volumes and libraries with the subtle linguistic analysis of the grunt.

Daniel Keyes

library discipline men

Why am I always looking at life through a window?

Daniel Keyes

window

Im like a man whos been half-asleep all his life, trying to find out what he was like before he woke up.

Daniel Keyes

half trying men

Dr. Strauss said I had something that was very good. He said I had a good motor-vation. I never ever knew I had that. I felt proud when he said that not every body with an eye-q of 68 had that thing. I don't know what it is or where I got it but he said Algernon had it too. Algernons motor-vation is the cheese they put in his box. But it can't be that because I didn't eat any cheese last week.

Daniel Keyes

drs body eye

The path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being--one of many ways--and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.

Daniel Keyes

mazes knowing way

The only question now is: How much can I hang on to?

Daniel Keyes

No one really starts anything new, Mrs. Nemur. Everyone builds on other men's failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts.

Daniel Keyes

originals men

Even in the world of make-believe there have to be rules. The parts have to be consistent and belong together. This kind of picture is a lie. Things are forced to fit because the writer or the director or somebody wanted something in that didn't belong. And it doesn't feel right

Daniel Keyes

together believe lying

Who's to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who's to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say?

Daniel Keyes

light darkness