Quotes from The Farthest Shore

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

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

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

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

“Yet we were rescued by that fancy, and saved by a myth.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Farthest Shore

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

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

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

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

“For discipline is the channel in which our acts run strong and deep; where there is no direction, the deeds of men run shallow and wander and are wasted.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Farthest Shore

“He said after a little while, 'I see why you say that only men do evil, I think. Even sharks are innocent, they kill because they must.'
'That is why nothing can resist us. Only one thing in the worl can resist an evil-hearted man. And that is another man. In our shame is our glory. Only our spirit, which is capable of evil, is capable of overcoming it.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Farthest Shore

About the author

Popular quotes

“He was polishing the glass with a dead hen.”
― James Herriot, quote from All Creatures Great and Small

“You know, it's a funny thing about writers. Most people don't stop to think of books being written by people much like themselves. They think that writers are all dead long ago--they don't expect to meet them in the street or out shopping. They know their stories but not their names, and certainly not their faces. And most writers like it that way.”
― Cornelia Funke, quote from Inkheart

“People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in the ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic.”
― Diane Setterfield, quote from The Thirteenth Tale

“The queen's eyes smouldered. "I know my own kind when I see them, and right now there is one in these city walls." She pointed a finger toward the balcony."I want her found and brought to me."
"Right," said Kai,"that'll be no problem in a city of two and a half million people. Let me just go dig out my special Lunar detector, and I'll get right on that.”
― Marissa Meyer, quote from Cinder

“What she really loved was to hang over the edge and watch the bow of the ship slice through the waves. She loved it especially when the waves were high and the ship rose and fell, or when it was snowing and the flakes stung her face.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Graceling

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.