The best Ursula K. Le Guin quotes, from Earthsea to The Dispossessed
The top 3 according to 48 votes from people: It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. · Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light. · We read books to find out who we are.. (Updated Apr 26, 2020.)
"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.
Top 17
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1
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).
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2
Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light.
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).
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3
We read books to find out who we are.
"Prophets and Mirrors", The Living Light (1970).
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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.
Speech at the National Book Awards, November 2014.
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5
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).
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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.
A Wizard of Earthsea (1968).
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7
One voice, speaking truth is a greater force than fleets and armies, given time; plenty of time.
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).
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8
To hear, one must be silent.
A Wizard of Earthsea (1968).
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9
To be whole is to be part; true voyage is return.
The Dispossessed (1974).
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10
The idea is like grass. It craves light, likes crowds, thrives on crossbreeding, grows better for being stepped on.
The Dispossessed (1974).
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11
It is very hard for evil to take hold of the unconsenting soul.
The Farthest Shore (1972).
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12
You can go home again, … so long as you understand that home is a place where you have never been.
The Dispossessed (1974).
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13
The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.
The Lathe of Heaven (1971).
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14
An adult is not a dead child, but a child who survived.
"Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?", The Language of the Night (1979).
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15
As a fiction writer, I don't speak message. I speak story.
"A Message About Messages", CBC Magazine (2005).
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16
To make a thief, make an owner; to create crime, create laws.
The Dispossessed (1974).
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17
To think that realistic fiction is by definition superior to imaginative fiction is to think imitation is superior to invention.
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.
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