{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "slug": "a-princess-of-mars-pg62",
  "title": "A princess of Mars",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "text": "I do not believe that I am made of the stuff which constitutes heroes, because,\nin all of the hundreds of instances that my voluntary acts have placed me face\nto face with death, I cannot recall a single one where any alternative step to\nthat I took occurred to me until many hours later."
    },
    {
      "text": "My mind is evidently so\nconstituted that I am subconsciously forced into the path of duty without\nrecourse to tiresome mental processes."
    },
    {
      "text": "I have never\nregretted that cowardice is not optional with me."
    },
    {
      "text": "I know that the average human mind will\nnot believe what it cannot grasp, and so I do not purpose being pilloried by\nthe public, the pulpit, and the press, and held up as a colossal liar when I am\nbut telling the simple truths which some day science will substantiate."
    },
    {
      "text": "The\nfact, however, that this thought did not occur to me until the following day\nremoves any possible right to a claim to heroism to which the narration of this\nepisode might possibly otherwise entitle me."
    },
    {
      "text": "Fear is a relative term and so I can only\nmeasure my feelings at that time by what I had experienced in previous\npositions of danger and by those that I have passed through since"
    },
    {
      "text": "cowardice is of a surety its own\npunishment"
    },
    {
      "text": "The transition had been so sudden and so unexpected that it left me for a\nmoment forgetful of aught else than my strange metamorphosis"
    },
    {
      "text": "My first thought\nwas, is this then death! Have I indeed passed over forever into that other\nlife!"
    },
    {
      "text": "I reasoned with myself that I had lain helpless for many hours\nwithin the cave, yet nothing had molested me, and my better judgment, when\npermitted the direction of clear and logical reasoning, convinced me that the\nnoises I had heard must have resulted from purely natural and harmless causes"
    },
    {
      "text": "My longing was beyond the power of opposition; I closed my eyes, stretched out\nmy arms toward the god of my vocation and felt myself drawn with the suddenness\nof thought through the trackless immensity of space"
    },
    {
      "text": "I knew that I was on Mars;\nnot once did I question either my sanity or my wakefulness. I was not asleep,\nno need for pinching here; my inner consciousness told me as plainly that I was\nupon Mars as your conscious mind tells you that you are upon Earth"
    },
    {
      "text": "My muscles, perfectly attuned and accustomed to the\nforce of gravity on Earth, played the mischief with me in attempting for the\nfirst time to cope with the lesser gravitation and lower air pressure on Mars"
    },
    {
      "text": "The result is\nthat they are infinitely less agile and less powerful, in proportion to their\nweight, than an Earth man, and I doubt that were one of them suddenly to be\ntransported to Earth he could lift his own weight from the ground"
    },
    {
      "text": "The throwing\ndown of his weapons and the withdrawing of his troop before his advance toward\nme would have signified a peaceful mission anywhere on Earth, so why not, then,\non Mars!"
    },
    {
      "text": "The average life expectancy of a Martian after the age of maturity is about\nthree hundred years, but would be nearer the one-thousand mark were it not for\nthe various means leading to violent death."
    },
    {
      "text": "Owing to the waning resources of\nthe planet it evidently became necessary to counteract the increasing longevity\nwhich their remarkable skill in therapeutics and surgery produced, and so human\nlife has come to be considered but lightly on Mars,"
    },
    {
      "text": "The ideas of humor among the green men of Mars are widely at variance with our\nconceptions of incitants to merriment. The death agonies of a fellow being are,\nto these strange creatures, provocative of the wildest hilarity, while their\nchief form of commonest amusement is to inflict death on their prisoners of war\nin various ingenious and horrible ways."
    },
    {
      "text": "this is the fleetest animal on Mars, and owing to its intelligence, loyalty,\nand ferocity is used in hunting, in war, and as the protector of the Martian\nman."
    },
    {
      "text": "I quickly saw that I would have difficulty in escaping the fangs of the beast\non a straightaway course, and so I met his charge by doubling in my tracks and\nleaping over him as he was almost upon me."
    },
    {
      "text": "Evidently devoid of all the finer sentiments of\nfriendship, love, or affection, these people fairly worship physical prowess\nand bravery, and nothing is too good for the object of their adoration as long\nas he maintains his position by repeated examples of his skill, strength, and\ncourage."
    },
    {
      "text": "I believe this horrible system which has been\ncarried on for ages is the direct cause of the loss of all the finer feelings\nand higher humanitarian instincts among these poor creatures."
    },
    {
      "text": "they\nare taught that they are only suffered to live until they can demonstrate by\ntheir physique and ferocity that they are fit to live."
    },
    {
      "text": "By careful selection they rear only the hardiest specimens of each species, and\nwith almost supernatural foresight they regulate the birth rate to merely\noffset the loss by death."
    },
    {
      "text": "The work of rearing young, green Martians consists solely in teaching them to\ntalk, and to use the weapons of warfare with which they are loaded down from\nthe very first year of their lives."
    },
    {
      "text": "Should they prove\ndeformed or defective in any way they are promptly shot; nor do they see a tear\nshed for a single one of the many cruel hardships they pass through from\nearliest infancy."
    },
    {
      "text": "a derelict of death and\ndestruction, typifying the life story of these strange and ferocious creatures\ninto whose unfriendly hands fate had carried it."
    },
    {
      "text": "I could not fathom the seeming\nhallucination, nor could I free myself from it; but somewhere in the innermost\nrecesses of my soul I felt a strange yearning toward these unknown foemen, and\na mighty hope surged through me that the fleet would return and demand a\nreckoning from the green warriors who had so ruthlessly and wantonly attacked\nit."
    },
    {
      "text": "The men are trained in the higher branches of the art of war; in strategy and\nthe maneuvering of large bodies of troops. They make the laws as they are\nneeded; a new law for each emergency. They are unfettered by precedent in the\nadministration of justice."
    },
    {
      "text": "They live at peace with all their fellows,\nexcept when duty calls upon them to make war, while we are at peace with none;\nforever warring among our own kind as well as upon the red men, and even in our\nown communities the individuals fight amongst themselves."
    },
    {
      "text": "Fortunate indeed is he who meets his end in an early death."
    },
    {
      "text": "She was indeed, as her fellow Martian had said of\nher, an atavism; a dear and precious reversion to a former type of loved and\nloving ancestor."
    },
    {
      "text": "Owning everything in common, even to your women and children,\nhas resulted in your owning nothing in common."
    },
    {
      "text": "The way is open to you, you\nwill find the hands of the red men stretched out to aid you. Together we may do\nstill more to regenerate our dying planet."
    },
    {
      "text": "What words of moment were to have fallen from his lips were never spoken, as\njust then a young warrior, evidently sensing the trend of thought among the\nolder men, leaped down from the steps of the rostrum, and striking the frail\ncaptive a powerful blow across the face, which felled her to the floor, placed\nhis foot upon her prostrate form and turning toward the assembled council broke\ninto peals of horrid, mirthless laughter."
    },
    {
      "text": "in the crude justice, which always marks Martian\ndealings, and which, among other things, has caused me to call her the planet\nof paradoxes, I was accorded the honors due a conqueror; the trappings and the\nposition of the man I killed."
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nam glad that I am here."
    },
    {
      "text": "I can readily perceive that you are not of the\nBarsoom of today; you are like us, yet different—but why should I trouble\nmy poor head with such a problem, when my heart tells me that I believe because\nI wish to believe!"
    },
    {
      "text": "you are a\nprisoner and yet you give commands which must be obeyed; you are an alien and\nyet you are a Tharkian chieftain; you are a midget and yet you can kill a\nmighty warrior with one blow of your fist."
    },
    {
      "text": "The safe\ndelivery of the red girl to Tal Hajus is of the greatest importance. Not in a\nthousand years have the Tharks made such a capture; she is the granddaughter of\nthe greatest of the red jeddaks, who is also our bitterest enemy."
    },
    {
      "text": "Cold,\ncunning, calculating; he was, also, in marked contrast to most of his fellows,\na slave to that brute passion which the waning demands for procreation upon\ntheir dying planet has almost stilled in the Martian breast."
    },
    {
      "text": "Far better that we save\nfriendly bullets for ourselves at the last moment, as did those brave frontier\nwomen of my lost land, who took their own lives rather than fall into the hands\nof the Indian braves."
    },
    {
      "text": "All property among the green Martians is owned in common\nby the community, except the personal weapons, ornaments and sleeping silks and\nfurs of the individuals."
    },
    {
      "text": "The women and children of a man’s retinue may be likened to a military\nunit for which he is responsible in various ways, as in matters of instruction,\ndiscipline, sustenance, and the exigencies of their continual roamings and\ntheir unending strife with other communities and with the red Martians."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is true that the green Martians are absolutely virtuous, both men and women,\nwith the exception of such degenerates as Tal Hajus; but better far a finer\nbalance of human characteristics even at the expense of a slight and occasional\nloss of chastity."
    },
    {
      "text": "the softer\nsentiments have their value, even to a warrior. In the height of battle as well\nas upon the march I know that my thoats will obey my every command, and\ntherefore my fighting efficiency is enhanced, and I am a better warrior for the\nreason that I am a kind master."
    },
    {
      "text": "So this was love! I had escaped it for all the years I had roamed the five\ncontinents and their encircling seas; in spite of beautiful women and urging\nopportunity; in spite of a half-desire for love and a constant search for my\nideal, it had remained for me to fall furiously and hopelessly in love with a\ncreature from another world, of a species similar possibly, yet not identical\nwith mine."
    },
    {
      "text": "Yes, I was a fool, but I was in love, and though I was suffering the greatest\nmisery I had ever known I would not have had it otherwise for all the riches of\nBarsoom."
    },
    {
      "text": "Twenty years have intervened; for ten of them I\nlived and fought for Dejah Thoris and her people, and for ten I have lived upon\nher memory."
    },
    {
      "text": "With the\nfoolish inconsistency of love I held my peace when I might have pled ignorance\nof the nature of my offense, or at least the gravity of it, and so have\neffected, at worst, a half conciliation."
    },
    {
      "text": "With all his cruel ferocity and coldness there was an undercurrent of something\nin Tars Tarkas which he seemed ever battling to subdue. Could it be a vestige\nof some human instinct come back from an ancient forbear to haunt him with the\nhorror of his people’s ways!"
    },
    {
      "text": "Lord, how she hated me! It bristled from her so palpably that one might\nalmost have cut it with a sword."
    },
    {
      "text": "Not fit to polish the teeth of her grandmother’s cat! I must rank pretty\nlow in the consideration of Dejah Thoris, I thought; but I could not help\nlaughing at the strange figure of speech, so homely and in this respect so\nearthly."
    },
    {
      "text": "By nature a wanderer, I had never known the true meaning of the\nword home, but the great hall of the Carters had always stood for all that the\nword did mean to me,"
    },
    {
      "text": "She trusted him and told him of the\nawful repugnance she felt for the cruelties of their kind, for the hideous,\nloveless lives they must ever lead, and then she waited for the storm of\ndenunciation to break from his cold, hard lips; but instead he took her in his\narms and kissed her."
    },
    {
      "text": "he does not labor\nfor what he can wrest in battle from others."
    },
    {
      "text": "I am saying, Dejah Thoris, that I am yours, body and soul, to serve you, to\nfight for you, and to die for you."
    },
    {
      "text": "The weakling and the saphead have often great\nability to charm the fair sex, while the fighting man who can face a thousand\nreal dangers unafraid, sits hiding in the shadows like some frightened child."
    },
    {
      "text": "I know\nthat you are not cursed with the terrible trait of absolute and unswerving\ntruthfulness, that you could lie like one of your own Virginia gentlemen if a\nlie would save others from sorrow or suffering."
    },
    {
      "text": "We\nmight hide among the great trees for a time, but the chances are small indeed\nfor escape. They would follow us to the very gates of Helium, and they would\ntake toll of life at every step; you do not know them."
    },
    {
      "text": "Those words are engraved upon my heart. Ah, gladly would I give up my life a\nthousand times could I only hear them once again"
    },
    {
      "text": "I knew that in the ravines and gullies they might\nfind a temporary hiding place, and even though they died there of hunger and\nthirst it would be better so than that they fell into the hands of the Tharks."
    },
    {
      "text": "He entirely omitted the usual formal salutation as we entered the presence of\nthe jeddak, and as he pushed me roughly before the ruler he exclaimed in a loud\nand menacing voice."
    },
    {
      "text": "Bar Comas eyed the defiant and insubordinate chieftain for an instant, his\nexpression one of haughty, fearless contempt and hate, and then without drawing\na weapon and without uttering a word he hurled himself at the throat of his\ndefamer."
    },
    {
      "text": "Victor and vanquished rolled limp and lifeless upon the moss,\na huge mass of torn and bloody flesh."
    },
    {
      "text": "Bar Comas was stone dead, and only the most herculean efforts on the part of\nDak Kova’s females saved him from the fate he deserved."
    },
    {
      "text": "The dead jeddak’s hands and head were removed to be added to the\nornaments of his conqueror, and then his women cremated what remained, amid\nwild and terrible laughter."
    },
    {
      "text": "My introduction to these cruel and bloodthirsty people was but an index to the\nscenes I witnessed almost daily while with them."
    },
    {
      "text": "I have seen as high as\neight mortal duels within a single day."
    },
    {
      "text": "The place\nwas filled with creeping, crawling things; cold, sinuous bodies passed over me\nwhen I lay down, and in the darkness I occasionally caught glimpses of\ngleaming, fiery eyes, fixed in horrible intentness upon me."
    },
    {
      "text": "Finally all the hatred and maniacal loathing for these awful creatures who had\nplaced me in this horrible place was centered by my tottering reason upon this\nsingle emissary who represented to me the entire horde of Warhoons."
    },
    {
      "text": "The\ntouch of my fingers on these keys brought back my reason with the suddenness of\nthought."
    },
    {
      "text": "the owners of those gleaming eyes had dragged my prize away from\nme to be devoured in their neighboring lair; as they had been waiting for days,\nfor weeks, for months, through all this awful eternity of my imprisonment to\ndrag my dead carcass to their feast."
    },
    {
      "text": "The winners\nin the various contests of the day would be pitted against each other until\nonly two remained alive; the victor in the last encounter being set free,\nwhether animal or man."
    },
    {
      "text": "Kantos Kan and I were now pitted against each other but as we approached to the\nencounter I whispered to him to prolong the battle until nearly dark in the\nhope that we might find some means of escape."
    },
    {
      "text": "In the\ndarkness which had now fallen none could tell but that he had really finished\nme."
    },
    {
      "text": "The secret of the\nentire process hinges on the use of the ninth ray, one of the beautiful\nscintillations which I had noted emanating from the great stone in my\nhost’s diadem."
    },
    {
      "text": "There is always sufficient reserve of the ninth ray stored in the great\nbuilding to maintain the present Martian atmosphere for a thousand years, and\nthe only fear, as my new friend told me, was that some accident might befall\nthe pumping apparatus."
    },
    {
      "text": "Every red Martian is taught during earliest childhood the principles of the\nmanufacture of atmosphere, but only two at one time ever hold the secret of\ningress to the great building,"
    },
    {
      "text": "The locks are so finely adjusted\nthat the doors are released by the action of a certain combination of thought\nwaves."
    },
    {
      "text": "My assistant and I are of no country, we\nbelong to all Barsoom and this talisman which we wear protects us in all lands,\neven among the green men—though we do not trust ourselves to their hands\nif we can avoid it,"
    },
    {
      "text": "the\nthought of Dejah Thoris drove from my mind all desire to kill my mistaken host."
    },
    {
      "text": "Instead of bothering with bolts and bars for\ntheir dwellings, the red Martians simply run them up out of harm’s way\nduring the night."
    },
    {
      "text": "The crops upon Mars are always uniform, for there are no droughts, no rains, no\nhigh winds, and no insects, or destroying birds."
    },
    {
      "text": "Every plant and\nflower and vegetable and animal has been so refined by ages of careful,\nscientific cultivation and breeding that the like of them on Earth dwindled\ninto pale, gray, characterless nothingness by comparison."
    },
    {
      "text": "Assassination is the ever-present fear of all Barsoomians, and for this reason\nalone their homes are raised high above the ground at night, or in times of\ndanger."
    },
    {
      "text": "I am here in the interest of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, to\ndiscover the whereabouts of Dejah Thoris, our princess."
    },
    {
      "text": "The medium of buoyancy is contained\nwithin the thin metal walls of the body and consists of the eighth Barsoomian\nray, or ray of propulsion, as it may be termed in view of its properties."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is this ray which has enabled them to so perfect aviation that battle ships\nfar outweighing anything known upon Earth sail as gracefully and lightly\nthrough the thin air of Barsoom as a toy balloon in the heavy atmosphere of\nEarth."
    },
    {
      "text": "the habit of military discipline\nis strong within me, and I dropped my little machine lightly to the ground and\nadvanced on foot as I had seen the others do."
    },
    {
      "text": "From the beginning of time upon Barsoom it has been the prerogative of\nwoman to change her mind as she listed and to dissemble in matters concerning\nher heart."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is too late, John Carter, my promise is given, and on Barsoom that is\nfinal. The ceremonies which follow later are but meaningless formalities."
    },
    {
      "text": "upon Barsoom there are two kinds of women in the cities of the red\nmen. The one they fight for that they may ask them in marriage; the other kind\nthey fight for also, but never ask their hands."
    },
    {
      "text": "You meant them then, my princess, and you mean\nthem still! Say that it is true."
    },
    {
      "text": "I may not wed\nthe man who slays my husband, even in self-defense. It is custom. We are ruled\nby custom upon Barsoom."
    },
    {
      "text": "That at least we may share in common. That, and the memory of the brief\ndays among the Tharks. You must go now, nor ever see me again."
    },
    {
      "text": "no man has lived who would not risk a thousand deaths\nfor such as she."
    },
    {
      "text": "There could be but one answer to this arraignment. We wait it."
    },
    {
      "text": "It was a chance to fight, an opportunity to loot, and they rose to the bait as\na speckled trout to a fly."
    },
    {
      "text": "The fighting strength and efficiency of this horde of ferocious green monsters\nwas equivalent to ten times their number of red men."
    },
    {
      "text": "It\nwas not I who did it, it was love, love for Dejah Thoris, a power that would\nwork greater miracles than this you have seen."
    },
    {
      "text": "The bravery of the Zodangans was awe-inspiring, not one attempted to escape,\nand when the fighting ceased it was because only Tharks remained alive in the\ngreat hall, other than Dejah Thoris and myself."
    },
    {
      "text": "There was an extremely pathetic side to the surrender of these mighty fliers,\nthe result of an age-old custom which demanded that surrender should be\nsignalized by the voluntary plunging to earth of the commander of the\nvanquished vessel."
    },
    {
      "text": "The city had gone mad\nwith joy."
    },
    {
      "text": "Never before had\nan armed body of green warriors entered the gates of Helium, and that they came\nnow as friends and allies filled the red men with rejoicing."
    },
    {
      "text": "that you are granted, gladly,\nand without one word of opposition, the most precious jewel in all Helium, yes,\non all Barsoom, is sufficient earnest of my esteem."
    },
    {
      "text": "The men of Helium have prided themselves that they have ever shown\nBarsoom how a nation of red men should live, now is our opportunity to show\nthem how they should die."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is cruel that we must be torn apart who were just starting upon a life\nof love and happiness."
    },
    {
      "text": "There is, there\nmust be some way, and John Carter, who has fought his way through a strange\nworld for love of you, will find it."
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nwould rather lie dead beside her there than live on Earth all those millions of\nterrible miles from her."
    },
    {
      "text": "I believe that they are waiting there for me, and something tells me that I\nshall soon know."
    },
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  ]
}