How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"[…] what I am looking for, you have to look in strange places. Men can never look at the sun, except downwards, at his reflection in things of earth. If he is reflected in a dirty puddle, he is still the sun. There is nowhere I will not look, to find him." (II.12.93)
Merlin makes it his mantra to seek power wherever he can find it. That means chasing knowledge no matter how hard, how hateful, or how frustrating it might be. By using the comparison of the sun reflected in the dirty puddle, Merlin makes it clear that partial knowledge is still knowledge—and that knowledge is power.
Quote #5
But I had begun to learn that in fact power made nothing smoother; when it came it was like having a wolf by the throat. Sometimes I had felt like that boy in the old myth who harnessed the horses of the sun and rode the world like a god until the power burned him to death. (III.5.55)
Power, according to Merlin, is like having the tiger by the tail (or wolf by the throat). Whichever wild animal you want to use for comparison, the outcome is the same: Merlin will end up on the toothy end of it. He also uses the myth of Phaeton to make things crystal clear: power is all very well and good, but it consumes the person who has it. And yet Merlin is still compelled to seek it wherever he can find it. That's in part because he knows he has a duty to fulfill—to bring King Arthur into the world.
Quote #6
There was something here. I paused. Nothing I could put a name to, but the old, black stone itself might have been some dark creature hunched there over the pit's edge. I felt the shiver run over my skin, and turned away. This, I would not disturb. (IV.10.8.400)
Merlin finds himself at the stone dance inside Killare looking for the king-stone to take back to Stonehenge. The king-stone has phenomenal supernatural power, but it's not, it seems, as frightening as this other ancient stone. Merlin won't touch that creepy thing. It represents a deep, ancient power that Merlin can't name, which makes it dangerous and frightening to him. Those are things that a wise man doesn't handle.