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Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes

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Famous Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes

“Civilized Man says: I am Self, I am Master, all the rest is other--outside, below, underneath, subservient. I own, I use, I explore, I exploit, I control. What I do is what matters. What I want is what matter is for. I am that I am, and the rest is women & wilderness, to be used as I see fit.”

MenWantSelfMatterUseUsedMastersFitWildernessCivilizedWhat MattersExploitsSubservient
Book:Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places
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“I suppose the most important thing, the heaviest single factor in one's life, is whether one's born male or female. In most societies it determines one's expectations, activities, outlook, ethics, manners - almost everything. Vocabulary. Semiotic usages. Clothing. Even food. Women... women tend to eat less... It's extremely hard to separate the innate differences from the learned ones. Even where women participate equally with men in the society, they still after all do all the childbearing, and so most of the child-rearing.”

MenChildrenStillsImportantHardLife IsBornDifferencesActivityExpectationsEthicsFemaleImportant ThingsMalesDetermineFactorsMannersClothingsVocabularyOutlookInnateUsageChild RearingSemioticsChildbearing
Book:The Left Hand of Darkness
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“And he began to see the truth, that Ged had neither lost nor won but, naming the shadow of his death with his own name, had made himself whole: a man who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life's sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark.”

MenMadeSelfWholePainUsedNamesLostDarkKnowingShadowHatredSakeRuinsPossessedTrue SelfGed
Book:A Wizard of Earthsea
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“When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are.”

MayYoungSpaceWonderConsequenceDeedsLatterTrout
Book:The farthest shore
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“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.”

ThinkingMenYearsChildrenEndsHandsTogetherNamesStarsWaterSecretSunTreeWindSourceSpringRootsDistanceShiningAriseCraftsCandleUnbornSyllablesWizardryUnborn Child
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“A child free from the guilt of ownership and the burden of economic competition will grow up with the will to do what needs doing and the capacity for joy in doing it. It is useless work that darkens the heart. The delight of the nursing mother, of the scholar, of the successful hunter, of the good cook, of the skilful maker, of anyone doing needed work and doing it well, - this durable joy is perhaps the deepest source of human affection and of sociality as a whole.”

NeedsHumansWellsHeartChildrenWholeJoyMotherGrowsGrowing UpSuccessfulEconomicSourceNeededCapacityGuiltCompetitionAffectionDelightBurdenCooksUselessMakersScholarOwnershipHuntersNursingGood CookEconomic Competition
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one musn't make a virtue of it, or a profession...Insofar as I love life, I love [my country], but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope.”

DoeSelfCountryHateLinesVirtueSelf LoveGood ThingsProfessionBoundariesIgnorantLove LifeWhat Is LoveI Love Life
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“Life rises out of death, death rises out of life; in being opposite they yearn to each other, they give birth to each other and are forever reborn. And with them, all is reborn, the flower of the apple tree, the light of the stars. In life is death. In death is rebirth. What then is life without death? Life unchanging, everlasting, eternal?-What is it but death-death without rebirth?”

GivingLightLife IsStarsForeverTreeFlowerBirthEternalOppositesApplesEverlastingRebirthLife DeathRebornUnchangingApple Trees
Book:The farthest shore
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“But you must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power...It must follow knowledge, and serve need.”

KnowsWorldNeedsEvilOne ThingDangerousBalanceShakesSandGood And EvilGrainWizardsEquilibriumPebblesGrains Of SandSummoning
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“I believe that all novels, ... deal with character, and that it is to express character – not to preach doctrines, sing songs, or celebrate the glories of the British Empire, that the form of the novel, so clumsy, verbose, and undramatic, so rich, elastic, and alive, has been evolved ... The great novelists have brought us to see whatever they wish us to see through some character. Otherwise they would not be novelists, but poet, historians, or pamphleteers.”

WritingBelieveHas BeensCharacterFormSongI BelieveWishDealsNovelRichAlivePoetGloryBritishDoctrineCelebrateNovelistsEmpiresHistorianClumsyBritish Empire
Book:The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction
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“I have told the story I was asked to tell. I have closed it, as so many stories close, with a joining of two people. What is one man's and one woman's love and desire, against the history of two worlds, the great revolutions of our lifetimes, the hope, the unending cruelty of our species? A little thing. But a key is a little thing, next to the door it opens. If you lose the key, the door may never be unlocked. It is in our bodies that we lose or begin our freedom, in our bodies that we accept or end our slavery. So I wrote this book for my friend, with whom I have lived and will die free.”

PeopleIfsMenWorldMayLittlesTwoBookEndsStoriesBodyDesireDiesNextLosesAcceptingDoorsRevolutionKeysMy FriendsSlaveryLifetimeSpeciesCrueltyOne ManLittle ThingsJoiningOne WomanUnendingTwo Worlds
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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