1,226 Quotes by Ursula K. Le Guin

I can never get used to the fact, though I know it, that women are born cynics. Men have to learn cynicism. Infant girls could teach it to them.

The power of the harasser, the abuser, the rapist depends above all on the silence of women.

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.

The strength of Shevek's personality, unchecked by any self-consciousness or consideration of self-defense, was formidable.

I never thought before,” said Tirin unruffled, “of the fact that there are people sitting on a hill, up there, on Urras, looking at Anarres, at us, and saying, ‘Look, there’s the Moon.’ Our earth is their Moon; our Moon is their earth.” “Where, then, is Truth?” declaimed Bedap, and yawned. “In the hill one happens to be sitting on,” said Tirin.

By the time I wrote this book I needed to look at heroics from outside and underneath, from the point of view of the people who are not included. The ones who can’t do magic. The ones who don’t have shining staffs or swords. Women, kids, the poor, the old, the powerless. Unheroes, ordinary people—my people. I didn’t want to change Earthsea, but I needed to see what Earthsea looked like to us.

Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it.

His authority was in fact immense; but he never stood on it. He sat down on it, comfortably, and invited you to sit down with him.

Where my guides lead me in kindnessI follow, follow lightly, and there are no footprints in the dust behind us.