245 quotes
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.
The Dispossessed (1974)
One of the historians of Darranda said: To learn a belief without belief is to sing a song without the tune.
The Telling (2000)
Once you have seen the larger pattern, you cannot go back to seeing the part as the whole.
Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995)
I have never found anywhere, in the domain of art, that you don't have to walk to.
The Language of the Night (1979)
It is a position, a posture in the dance.
The Telling (2000)
In the self-important, Falco reflected, there is always room for a little more self-importance.
The Eye of the Heron (1978)
Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; re-made all the time, made new.
The Lathe of Heaven (1971)
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
"Why must there be war?" "Oh Lavinia, what a woman's question that is! Because men are men."
Lavinia (2008)
Uninfluenced by others, he never knew he influenced them; he had no idea they liked him.
The Dispossessed (1974)
I’d rather get bad news from an honest man than lies from a flatterer.
The Other Wind (2001)
You can go home again, the General Temporal Theory asserts, so long as you understand that home is a place where you have never been.
The Dispossessed (1974)
After hard fighting, when six or seven men had been wounded or killed, the war chiefs on both sides would simultaneously declare a victory.
Changing Planes (2003)
The desire for power feeds off itself, growing as it devours.
Tales from Earthsea (2001)
It is not human to be without shame and without desire.
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
As I refuse violence, I refuse to serve the violent.
The Eye of the Heron (1978)
I thought, shivering, that there are things that outweigh comfort, unless one is an old woman or a cat.
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
The children of the revolution are always ungrateful, and the revolution must be grateful that it is so.
Dancing at the Edge of the World (1989)
It’s a rare gift, to know where you need to be, before you’ve been to all the places you don’t need to be.
Tales from Earthsea (2001)
I forgot, being too interested myself, that he’s a king, and does not see things rationally, but as a king.
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)