The Farthest Shore Quotes

“I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“This is. And thou art. There is no safety. There is no end. The word must be heard in silence. There must be darkness to see the stars. The dance is always danced above the hollow place, above the terrible abyss.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin, The Farthest Shore

“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.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“Do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin, The Farthest Shore

“A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“No darkness lasts forever. And even there, there are stars.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“And though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet I would remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the western isles; and I would be content.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“Do you see how an act is not, as young men think, like a rock that one picks up and throws, and it hits or misses, and that's the end of it. When that rock is lifted, the earth is lighter; the hand that bears it heavier. When it is thrown, the circuits of the stars respond, and where it strikes or falls, the universe is changed. On every act the balance of the whole depends. The winds and seas, the powers of water and earth and light, all that these do, and all that the beasts and green things do, is well done, and rightly done. All these act within the Equilibrium. From the hurricane and the great whale's sounding to the fall of a dry leaf and the gnat's flight, all they do is done within the balance of the whole.

But we, insofar as we have power over the world and over one another, we must learn to do what the leaf and the whale and the wind do of their own nature. We must learn to keep the balance. Having intelligence, we must not act in ignorance. Having choice, we must not act without responsibility.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man nor any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: the gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose... That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes; it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself?”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“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?”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“We men dream dreams, we work magic, we do good, we do evil. The dragons do not dream. They are dreams. They do not work magic: it is their substance, their being. They do not do; they are.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“She'll die.'
'Aye. That's a consequence of being alive.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“Death and life are the same thing-like the two sides of my hand, the palm and the back. And still the palm and the back are not the same...They can be neither separated, nor mixed.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“There is no kingdom like the forests.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“For in this love he now felt there was compassion: without which love is untempered, and is not whole, and does not last.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“To see a candle’s light, one must take it into a dark place.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“You fear them because you fear death, and rightly: for death is terrible and must be feared,' the mage said...'And life is also a terrible thing,' Ged said, 'and must be feared and praised.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“Do you see, Arren, how an act is not, as young men think, like a rock that one picks up and throws, and it hits or misses, and that's the end of it. When that rock is lifted, the earth is lighter; the hand that bears it is heavier. When it is thrown, the circuits of the stars respond, and where it strikes or falls the universe is changed.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“I have given my love to what is worthy of love. Is that not the kingdom and the unperishing spring?”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“But when we crave power over life—endless wealth, unassailable safety, immortality—then desire becomes greed. And if knowledge allies itself to that greed, then comes evil. Then the balance of the world is swayed, and ruin weighs heavy in the scale.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“No man, no power, can bind the action of wizardry or still the words of power. For they are the very words of Making, and one who could silence them could unmake the world.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“Having intelligence, we must not act in ignorance. Having choice, we must not act without responsibility.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“He was very weary; the day had been long, and full of dragons.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“So the first step out of childhood is made all at once, without looking before or behind, without caution, and nothing held in reserve.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“There must be darkness to see the stars.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“In Enlad," said Arren after a while, "we have a story about the boy whose schoolmaster
was a stone:'
"Aye?... What did he learn?"
"Not to ask questions.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“What is evil?" asked the younger man. The round web, with its black center, seemed to watch them both. "A web we men weave." Ged answered.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“I am tired of safe places, and roofs, and walls around me.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“Try to choose carefully, Arren, when the great choices must be made. 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.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

“I prefer to save talking till I know what I’m talking about.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore