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 Virginity is now a mere preamble or waiting room to be got out of as soon as possible; it is without significance. Old age is similarly a waiting room, where you go after life's over and wait for cancer or a stroke. The years before and after the menstrual years are vestigial: the only meaningful condition left to women is that of fruitfulness. Ursula K. Le Guin waiting-rooms cancer meaningful He is far too intelligent to become really cerebral. Ursula K. Le Guin cerebral intelligent The living tongue that tells the word, the living ear that hears it, bind and bond us in the communion we long for in the silence of our inner solitude. Ursula K. Le Guin solitude silence long It is no secret. All power is one in source and end, I think. Years and distances, stars and candles, water and wind and wizardry, the craft in a man's hand and the wisdom in a tree's root: they all arise together. My name, and yours, and the true name of the sun, or a spring of water, or an unborn child, all are syllables of the great word that is very slowly spoken by the shining of the stars. There is no other power. No other name. Ursula K. Le Guin distance stars children At this point, realism is perhaps the least adequate means of understanding or portraying the incredible realities of our existence. Ursula K. Le Guin understanding mean reality It is hard to swear when sex is not dirty and blasphemy does not exist. Ursula K. Le Guin doe sex dirty No society can change the nature of existence. We can't prevent suffering. This pain and that pain, yes, but not Pain. A society can only relieve social suffering, unnecessary suffering. The rest remains. The root, the reality. Ursula K. Le Guin pain roots reality Manhood is patience. Mastery is nine time patience Ursula K. Le Guin time-patience mastery nine Safety lies in catering to the in-group. We are not all brave. All I would ask of writers who find it hard to question the universal validity of their personal opinions and affiliations is that they consider this: Every group we belong to - by gender, sex, race, religion, age - is an in-group, surrounded by an immense out-group, living next door and all over the world, who will be alive as far into the future as humanity has a future. That out-group is called other people. It is for them that we write. Ursula K. Le Guin writing lying sex We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark? Ursula K. Le Guin dark hands The menopause is probably the least glamorous topic imaginable; and this is interesting, because it is one of the very few topics to which cling some shreds and remnants of taboo. A serious mention of menopause is usually met with uneasy silence; a sneering reference to it is usually met with relieved sniggers. Both the silence and the sniggering are pretty sure indications of taboo. Ursula K. Le Guin topics silence interesting No matter how intelligent a man is, he can't see what he doesn't know how to see. Ursula K. Le Guin intelligent matter men ... the habit of literature [is] the best defense against believing the half-truths of ideologues and the lies of demagogues. Ursula K. Le Guin defense believe lying What is life without incompatible realities? Ursula K. Le Guin what-is-life reality I hope you are never victims, but I hope you have no power over other people. Ursula K. Le Guin power-over-others victim people I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning. Ursula K. Le Guin dragons morning wind This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. Ursula K. Le Guin pain artist evil First sentences are doors to worlds. Ursula K. Le Guin doors world firsts Living, being in the world, was a much greater and stranger thing than she had ever dreamed. Ursula K. Le Guin greater stranger world A man would know the end he goes to, but he cannot know it if he does not turn, and return to his beginning, and hold that beginning in his being. If he would not be a stick whirled and whelmed in the stream, he must be the stream itself, all of it, from its spring to its sinking in the sea. Ursula K. Le Guin sea spring men
