Ed > Ed's Quotes

“For a word to be spoken, there must be silence. Before, and after.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea

“And suddenly it knew what it had to do.
It de-coupled its engine fields from the energy grid and plunged those vortices of pure energy deep into the fabric of its own mind, tearing its intellect apart in a supernova of sentient agony.”
― Iain M. Banks, Excession

“1/ Serene
2/ In a world full of troubles
3/ i.e. Doing nothing about it.”
― Iain Banks

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
― Stephen King, The Gunslinger

“The only sin is selfishness.”
― Iain M. Banks, Inversions

“THE ALMOST-INCORPOREAL VASTNESS PUZZLES, LISTENING AS LEVIATHAN MIGHT PUZZLE OVER THE PROBLEMS OF AN ATOM.”
― James Tiptree Jr., Up the Walls of the World

“When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness

“A man wants his virility regarded. A woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard and appreciation. [Here] one is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness

“An enemy, in Karhide, is not a stranger, an invader. The stranger who comes unknown is a guest. Your enemy is your neighbor.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

“He was aware that in thus relegating to irrelity a major portion of the only reality, the only existence, that he in fact did have, he was running exactly the same risk the insane mind runs: the lossof the sense of free will. He knew that in so far as one denies what is, one is possessed by what is not, the compulsions, the fantasies, the terrors that flock to fill the void. But the void was there. This life lacked realness; it was hollow; the dream, creating where there was no necessity to create, had worn thin and sleazy. If this was being, perhaps the void was better. He would accept the monsters and the necessities beyond reason. He wouldgo home, and take no drugs, but sleep, and dream what dreams might come.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

“Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

“When you meet a master swordsman, show him your sword. When you meet a man who is not a poet, do not show him your poem.

Robert Greene rephrase:
When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword. Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet.”
― Lin-Chi

“I think from now on, I will not trust anyone who isn't angry.”
― Joanna Russ, How to Suppress Women's Writing

“If Earth had been hit by plague, by fire, by war, by radiation, sterility, a thousand things, you name it, I'd still stand by her; I love her; I would fight every inch of the way there because my whole life is knit to her. And she'd need mourners. To die on a dying Earth- I'd live, if only to weep.”
― Joanna Russ, We Who Are About To...

“Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.”
― Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination

“The bomb lives only as it is falling.”
― Iain M. Banks, Use of Weapons

“Minority art, vernacular art, is marginal art. Only on the margins does growth occur.”
― Joanna Russ

“As my mother once said: The boys throw stones at the frogs in jest.

But the frogs die in earnest.”
― Joanna Russ, The Female Man