Ursula K. Le Guin quotes - page 7

We live well in the houses-well enough. But we are ruled utterly by fear. There was a time we sailed in ships between the stars, and now we dare not go a hundred miles from home. We keep a little knowledge, and do nothing with it. But once we used that knowledge to weave the pattern of life like a tapestry across night and chaos. We enlarged the chances of life. We did man's work. (Ursula K. Le Guin)
Her left hand reminded her of its existence, and she looked round to see what was scratching the heel of her hand. It was a tiny thistle, crouched in a crack in the sandstone, barely lifting its colorless spikes into the light and wind. It nodded stiffly as the wind blew, resisting the wind, rooted in rock. She gazed at it for a long time. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
But you knew them to be evil men-” "Was I to join them therefore? To let their acts rule my own? I will not make their choices for them, nor will I let them make mine for me! View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
The Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere. It is for all, or it is nothing. If it is seen as having any end, it will never truly begin. We can't stop here. We must go on. We must take the risks. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
Long ago we parted,” said the slight, still man of the Fiia. "Longer ago we were one. What we are not, they are. What we are, they are not. Think of the sunlight and the grass and the trees that bear fruit, Semley; think that not all roads that lead down lead up as well. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
Is power that-an emptiness? View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
You exist: without name, without form. You cannot see the light of day; you cannot see the dark. You sold the green earth and the sun and stars to save yourself. But you have no self. All that which you sold, that is yourself. You have given everything for nothing. And so now you seek to draw the world to you, all that light and life you lost, to fill up your nothingness. But it cannot be filled. Not all the songs of earth, not all the stars of heaven, could fill your emptiness. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
The world's vast and strange, Hara, but no vaster and no stranger than our minds are. Think of that sometimes. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
In the self-important, Falco reflected, there is always room for a little more self-importance. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
The experience was disagreeable. I began to feel like an atheist praying. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
He had almost yielded, but not quite. He had not consented. It is very hard for evil to take hold of the unconsenting soul. (Ursula K. Le Guin)
And the rest, all the rest. All the days and lights and winds and years that would have been, and that would not be, that should be and were not, because he was dead. Shot dead on the road, in the wind, at twenty-one. His mountains unclimbed, never to be climbed. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
They can keep their God, they can keep their Light. I want the world back. I want questions, not the answer. I want my own life back, and my own death! View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
There is nothing important except people. A person is defined solely by the extent of his influence over other people, by the sphere of his interrelationships; and morality is an utterly meaningless term unless defined as the good one does to others, the fulfilling of one's function in the sociopolitical whole. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
How could anybody think this man was sick? All right, so he had funny dreams. That was better than being plain mean and hateful, like about one quarter of the people she had ever met. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
There's people all over these parts, and maybe beyond, who think, as you said, that nobody can be wise alone. So these people try to hold to each other. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
She saw time naïvely as a road laid out. You walked ahead, and you got somewhere. If you were lucky, you got somewhere worth getting to. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
She knew it, but she did not want to know it. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
Uninfluenced by others, he never knew he influenced them; he had no idea they liked him. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
He liked the vast openness of sky and prairie, and found loneliness a pleasure with so immense a domain to be alone in. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
Maybe that's what the Masters are afraid of. Maybe celibacy isn't as necessary as the Rule of Roke teaches. Maybe it's not a way of keeping the power pure, but of keeping the power to themselves. (Ursula K. Le Guin)
You can't crush ideas by suppressing them. You can only crush them by ignoring them. By refusing to think, refusing to change. And that's precisely what our society is doing! View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
Existence is its own justification, need is right. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
To which Silence of course made no reply, letting him hear what he had said and feel its foolishness thoroughly. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
As I refuse violence, I refuse to serve the violent. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin