# The best Ursula K. Le Guin quotes, from Earthsea to The Dispossessed

"It is the journey that matters, in the end", "To hear, one must be silent" and "To make a thief, make an owner": the Ursula K. Le Guin lines readers quote most, from The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the Earthsea books to her essays, each with its source.

- 48 votes · 17 items
- Apr 26, 2020 · Thabo Nkosi
- https://even.best/en/l/5086/the-best-ursula-k-le-guin-quotes-from-earthsea-to-the-dispossessed

## Top 17

1. **It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).
2. **Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).
3. **We read books to find out who we are.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — "Prophets and Mirrors", The Living Light (1970).
4. **I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Speech at the National Book Awards, November 2014.
5. **The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).
6. **You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act.** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — A Wizard of Earthsea (1968).
7. **One voice, speaking truth is a greater force than fleets and armies, given time; plenty of time.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).
8. **To hear, one must be silent.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — A Wizard of Earthsea (1968).
9. **To be whole is to be part; true voyage is return.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Dispossessed (1974).
10. **The idea is like grass. It craves light, likes crowds, thrives on crossbreeding, grows better for being stepped on.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Dispossessed (1974).
11. **It is very hard for evil to take hold of the unconsenting soul.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — The Farthest Shore (1972).
12. **You can go home again, … so long as you understand that home is a place where you have never been.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The Dispossessed (1974).
13. **The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The Lathe of Heaven (1971).
14. **An adult is not a dead child, but a child who survived.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — "Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?", The Language of the Night (1979).
15. **As a fiction writer, I don't speak message. I speak story.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — "A Message About Messages", CBC Magazine (2005).
16. **To make a thief, make an owner; to create crime, create laws.** (-1 · ▲1 ▼2) — The Dispossessed (1974).
17. **To think that realistic fiction is by definition superior to imaginative fiction is to think imitation is superior to invention.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — The Wave in the Mind (2004).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.