Jorge L.

“o. It is not wonderful. It is an ugly world. Not like this one. Anarres is all dusty and dry hills. All meager, all dry. And the people aren’t beautiful. They have big hands and feet, like me and the waiter there. But not big bellies. They get very dirty, and take baths together, nobody here does that. The towns are very small and dull, they are dreary. No palaces. Life is dull, and hard work. You can’t always have what you want, or even what you need, because there isn’t enough. You Urrasti have enough. Enough air, enough rain, grass, oceans, food, music, buildings, factories, machines, books, clothes, history. You are rich, you own. We are poor, we lack. You have, we do not have. Everything is beautiful here. Only not the faces. On Anarres nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces, the men and women. We have nothing but that, nothing but each other. Here you see the jewels, there you see the eyes. And in the eyes you see the splendor, the splendor of the human spirit. Because our men and women are free—possessing nothing, they are free. And you the possessors are possessed. You are all in jail. Each alone, solitary, with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison. It is all I can see in your eyes—the wall, the wall!”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia

“It is in meeting the great tests that mankind can most successfully rise to great heights. Out of danger and restless insecurity comes the force that pushes mankind to newer and loftier conquests. Can you understand that? Can you understand that in averting the pitfalls and miseries that beset man, Eternity prevents men from finding their own bitter and better solutions, the real solutions that come from conquering difficulty, not avoiding it?”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“The final end of Eternity, and the beginning of Infinity”
― Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity

“Mis esfuerzos no cejarán mientras me quede un segundo de vida. Vosotros sois muchos, y yo estoy solo. Pero puedo hablar en nombre del espíritu humano con una voz igual a la vuestra. La verdad no es menos verdadera si es conocida por pocos. Y nunca han sido masas ni muchedumbres las que forjaron el destino, sino individuos visionarios e innovadores, que son despreciados y aislados por las mismas masas que tanto se benefician de su trabajo. Pero ese beneficio es un efecto lateral de nuestra labor solitaria, no su propósito principal. Haré lo que deba hacer aunque nadie se beneficie con ello. Concretaré mi sueño, sin importar el coste, sin importar la pérdida. Lo haré porque mi sueño es sensato y verdadero, bello y atinado.”
― John C. Wright, The Golden Age