Quotes from The Word for World is Forest

Ursula K. Le Guin ·  160 pages

Rating: (10.3K votes)


“A forest ecology is a delicate one. If the forest perishes, its fauna may go with it. The Athshean word for world is also the word for forest.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“For if it's all the rest of us who are killed by the suicide, it's himself whom the murderer kills; only he has to do is over, and over, and over.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“Sometimes a god comes," Selver said. "He brings a new way to do a thing, or a new thing to be done. A new kind of singing, or a new kind of death. He brings this across the bridge between the dream-time and the world-time. When he has done this, it is done. You cannot take things that exist in the world and try to drive them back into the dream, to hold them inside the dream with walls and pretenses. That is insanity. What is, is. There is no use pretending, now, that we do not know how to kill one another.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“I don’t know. Do men kill men, except in madness? Does any beast kill its own kind? Only the insects. These yumens kill us as lightly as we kill snakes. The one who taught me said that they kill one another, in quarrels, and also in groups, like ants fighting. I haven’t seen that. But I know they don’t spare one who asks life. They will strike a bowed neck, I have seen it! There is a wish to kill in them, and therefore I saw fit to put them to death.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“Had his fear, in fact, been the personal fear that Selver might having learnt the racial hatred, reject him and treat him not as you but as one of them.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest



“Can you walk the road your dream goes?
Sometimes. Sometimes I am afraid to.
Who is not.
...”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“The most winning characteristic of the rather harsh Cetian temperament was curiosity, inopportune, and inexhaustible curiosity; Cetians died eagerly, curious as to what came next.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“You have not thought things through,” he said. By his standards it was a brutal insult.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“For the kindest of them was as far out of touch, as unreachable, as the crudest.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“In diversity is life and where there's life there's hope, was the general sum of his creed, a modest! one to be sure.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest



“Dünya hep yenidir, kökleri ne kadar eski de olsa.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“In diversity is life and where there's life there's hope, was the general sum of his creed, a modest one to be sure.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


“The fact is, the only time a man is really and entirely a man is when he's just had a woman or just killed another man. That wasn't original, he'd read it in some old books; but it was true. That was why he liked to imagine scenes like that. Even if the creechies weren't actually men.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Word for World is Forest


About the author

Ursula K. Le Guin
Born place: in Berkeley, California, The United States
Born date October 21, 1929
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“He created kingdoms, and then destroyed them as he made the world anew. We had the wrong gender all along.”
― Brandon Sanderson, quote from Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set


“Do I look like a commitment sort of girl to you?”
“You look like trouble,” he grinned. “When I was growing up, my mother used to tell me to never trust a redhead.”
I frowned. “There are only two reasons she’d say something like that.” Caleb raised his eyebrows. “And they are?”
“Your father either slept with one, or she is one.”
I buzzed under his crooked smile. It extended all the way to his eyes this time.
“I like you,” he said.
“That’s swell, Boy Scout. Real swell.”
― Tarryn Fisher, quote from Dirty Red


“Where you are is who you are. The further inside you the place moves, the more your identity is intertwined with it. Never casual, the choice of place is the choice of something you crave.”
― Frances Mayes, quote from Under the Tuscan Sun


“I think telling stories is like pushing something. Pushing against uncreation itself, maybe.”
― Stephen King, quote from Song of Susannah


“What’s this war called again?”
“The Hundred Years War.”
“Hmmmm, got a bad feeling about this one.”
― Karl Wiggins, quote from Calico Jack in your Garden


Interesting books

The Wheel of Osheim
(8.3K)
The Wheel of Osheim
by Mark Lawrence
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
(20.3K)
The Girl Who Drank t...
by Kelly Barnhill
Everything on a Waffle
(9.5K)
Everything on a Waff...
by Polly Horvath
Crown of Souls
(203)
Crown of Souls
by Ronie Kendig
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night
(60.5K)
The Queen's Poisoner
(19K)
The Queen's Poisoner
by Jeff Wheeler

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.