Stephen R. Donaldson > Quotes

“Are you a storyteller, Thomas Covenant?"
Absently he replied, "I was, once."
"And you gave it up? Ah, that is as sad a tale in three words as any you might have told me. But a life without a tale is like a sea without salt. How do you live?"
... Unconsciously, he clenched his fist over his ring. "I live."
"Another?" Foamfollower returned. "In two words, a story sadder than the first. Say no more -- with one word you will make me weep.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson

“I respect my limitations, but I don't use them as an excuse. ”
― Stephen R. Donaldson

“He who waits for the sword to fall upon his neck will surely lose his head.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson

“Any belief that puts itself beyond doubt nurtures its own collapse.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Reave the Just and Other Tales

“Stone and sea are deep in life
Two unalterable symbols of the world
Permanence at rest
And permanence in motion
Participants in the power that remains”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

“And he who wields white, wild magic gold is a paradox
For he is everything and nothing
Hero and fool
Potent, helpless
And with one word of truth or treachery
He will save or damn the earth
Because he is mad and sane
Cold and passionate
Lost and found”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

“It is wrong to ask for more than you give freely. In this way, we come to resemble what we hate.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

“We didn't make the world. All we have to do is live in it.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“This you have to understand. There's only one way to hurt a man who's lost everything. Give him back something broken.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Wounded Land

“Joy is in the ears that hear.”
― Stephen R Donaldson

“Something in her expression made Covenant feel that he came from a very poor world, where no one knew or cared about the healing of stoneware pots.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Where do you get dreams like this?”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“There is no life which does not possess its own importance, no life which may not be touched by greatness at any time -- Yes, be touched by greatness and have a hand in it.


(from The Mirror of Her Dreams)”
― Stephen Donaldson

“Be true, unbeliever.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

“Do not hurt where holding is enough; do not wound where hurting is enough; do not maim where wounding is enough; and kill not where maiming is enough; the greatest warrior is he who does not need to kill.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Illearth War

“Part of him wanted to weep... but his purpose was rigid within him. He felt he could not bend to gentleness without breaking.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

“Gradually, the night stumbled as if stunned and wandering aimlessly into an overcast day -- limped through the wilderland of transition as though there were no knowing where the waste of darkness ended and the ashes of light began. The low clouds seemed full of grief -- tense and uneasy with accumulated woe -- and yet affectless, unable to rain, as if the air clenched itself too hard for tears. And through the dawn, Atiaran and Covenant moved heavily, unevenly, like pieces of a broken lament.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“He was too many things at once - a boy, a man, and everything in between - and the differing parts of himself seldom came into balance. She found him attractive in that way. Yet the perception saddened her: she herself wasn't too many things, but too few.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Mirror of Her Dreams

“The story of Terisa and Geraden began very much like a fable. She was a princess in a high tower. He was a hero come to rescue her. She was the only daughter of wealth and power. He was the seventh son of the lord of the seventh Care. She was beautiful from the auburn hair that crowned her head to the tips of her white toes. He was handsome and courageous. She was held prisoner by enchantment. He was a fearless breaker of enchantments.

As in all the fables, they were made for each other.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Mirror of Her Dreams

“And you require no answers", Foamfollower was laughing in his gladness, "You are sufficient to every question".”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

“Futility is the defining characteristic of life.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“The purpose of life—if it may be said to have purpose—is not ease. It is to choose, and to act upon the choice. In that task, we are not measured by outcomes. We are measured only by daring and effort and resolve.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Last Dark

“...are you a person - with volition and maybe some stubborness and at least the capacity if not the actual determination to do something surprising - or are you a tool? A tool just serves its user. It's only as good as the skill of its user, and its not good for anything else. So if you want to accomplish something special - something more than you can do for yourself - you can't use a tool. You have to use a person and hope the surprises will work in your favor. You have to use something that's free to not be what you had in mind.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

“These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives: for all the scents of green things growing, each breath is but an exhalation of the grave. Bodies jerk like puppet corpses, and hell walks laughing— Laughing”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Joy is in the ears that hear, not in the mouth that speaks. The world has few stories glad in themselves, and we must have gay ears to defy Despite"

Foamfollower from (Lord Foul's Bane; 1977)”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Golden Boy with feet of clay
Let me help you on your way
A proper push will take you far -
But what a clumsy lad you are!”
― Stephen Donaldson

“A real man—real in all the ways that we recognize as real—finds himself suddenly abstracted from the world and deposited in a physical situation which could not possibly exist: sounds have aroma, smells have color and depth, sights have texture, touches have pitch and timbre. There he is informed by a disembodied voice that he has been brought to that place as a champion for his world. He must fight to the death in single combat against a champion from another world. If he is defeated, he will die, and his world—the real world—will be destroyed because it lacks the inner strength to survive.

The man refuses to believe that what he is told is true. He asserts that he is either dreaming or hallucinating, and declines to be put in the false position of fighting to the death where no "real" danger exists. He is implacable in his determination to disbelieve his apparent situation, and does not defend himself when he is attacked by the champion of the other world.

Question: Is the man's behavior courageous or cowardly? This is the fundamental question of ethics.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“It may be that hope misleads. But hate—hate corrupts. I have been too quick to hate. I become like what I abhor.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Attempts must be made, even when there can be no hope. The alternative is despair.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Fatal Revenant

“It was the responsibility of the living to make meaningful the sacrifices of the dead.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Illearth War