Nobody who says, ‘I told you so’ has ever been, or will ever be, a hero. Ursula K. Le Guin More Quotes by Ursula K. Le Guin More Quotes From Ursula K. Le Guin While we read a novel, we are insane—bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren't there, we hear their voices... Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed. Ursula K. Le Guin voice believe book What is a woman's power then?" she asked. "I don't think we know." "When has a woman power because she's a woman? With her children, I suppose. For a while..." "In her house, maybe." She looked around the kitchen. "But the doors are shut," she said, "the doors are locked." "Because you're valuable." "Oh yes. We're precious. So long as we're powerless. Ursula K. Le Guin doors children thinking The world is in balance . To light a candle is to cast a shadow. Ursula K. Le Guin balance shadow light We decided that it was no good asking what is the meaning of life, because life isn't an answer, life is the question, and you, yourself, are the answer. Ursula K. Le Guin meaning-of-life healing asking Hope is a slow business. Ursula K. Le Guin hope Every book purchase made from Amazon is a vote for a culture without content and without contentment. Ursula K. Le Guin amazon contentment book Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it. Ursula K. Le Guin ifs use share To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness. Ursula K. Le Guin stress skills darkness Owning is owing, having is hoarding. Ursula K. Le Guin hoarding owing The important thing is not the finding, it is the seeking, it is the devotion with which one spins the wheel of prayer and scripture, discovering the truth little by little. Ursula K. Le Guin important prayer inspirational In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little... But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed. Ursula K. Le Guin different reading believe So the first step out of childhood is made all at once, without looking before or behind, without caution, and nothing held in reserve. Ursula K. Le Guin childhood steps firsts All or nothing at all, the true lover says, and that's the truth of it. My love will never die, he says. He claims eternity. And rightly. How can it die when it's life itself? What do we know of eternity but the glimpse we get of it when we enter in that bond? Ursula K. Le Guin glimpse lovers life I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? Ursula K. Le Guin autumn sunset fall A wrong that cannot be repaired must be transcended. Ursula K. Le Guin In our loss and fear we craved the acts of religion, the ceremonies that allow us to admit our helplessness, our dependence on the great forces we do not understand. Ursula K. Le Guin force fear loss It is of the nature of idea to be communicated: written, spoken, done. The idea is like grass. It craves light, likes crowds, thrives on crossbreeding, grows better for being stepped on. Ursula K. Le Guin light done ideas Our model of the cosmos must be as inexhaustible as the cosmos. A complexity that includes not only duration but creation, not only being but becoming, not only geometry but ethics. It is not the answer we are after, but only how to ask the question. Ursula K. Le Guin cosmos duration answers To me the female principle is, or at least historically has been, basically anarchic. It values order without constraint, rule by custom not by force. It has been the male who enforces order, who constructs power structures, who makes, enforces, and breaks laws. Ursula K. Le Guin women law order I have never heard a dancer asking for advice about how to stay focused on her footwork, or a painter complaining about the dull day-to-day task of painting. What task worth doing isn't worth daily effort? Do you think Michelangelo was having fun the whole time he was on his back painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling? Ursula K. Le Guin writing fun thinking
