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1 " We all have forests on our minds. Forests unexplored, unending. Each one of us gets lost in the forest, every night, alone. "
― Ursula K. Le Guin , The Wind's Twelve Quarters
2 " He had been trying to measure the distance between the earth and God. "
3 " This was a great magic. Festin had no more performed it than has any man who in exile or danger longs for the earth and waters of his home, seeing and yearning over the doorsill of his house, the table where he has eaten, the branches outside the window of the room where he has slept. Only in dreams do any but the great Mages realize this magic of going home. "
4 " Love that wants only to get, to possess, is a monstrous thing "
5 " It is hard to meet a stranger. Even the greatest extravert meeting even the meekest stranger knows a certain dread, though he may not know he knows it. Will he make a fool of me wreck my image of myself invade me destroy me change me? Yes, that he will. There's the terrible thing: the strangeness of the stranger. "
6 " I don't know. We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark? "
7 " Mede stood accused of heresy. He had been seen out on the fields pointing an instrument at the Sun, a device, they said, for measuring distances. He had been trying to measure the distance between the earth and God. "
8 " Of course I didn't read James and sit down and say, Now I'll write a story about that “lost soul.” It seldom works that simply.I sat down and started a story, just because I felt like it, with nothing but the word “Omelas” in mind. It came from a road sign: Salem (Oregon) backwards. Don't you read road signs backwards? POTS. WOLS nerdlihc. Ocsicnarf Nas... Salem equals schelomo equals salaam equals Peace. Melas. O melas. Omelas. Homme helas.“Where do you get your ideas from, Ms Le Guin?” From forgetting Dostoyevsky and reading road signs backwards, naturally. Where else? "
9 " Ebediyet beni ilgilendirmez. Ben bir meşeyim, ne bir eksik ne bir fazla. Bir görevim var ve yerine getiriyorum; hoşlandığım şeyler var ve onlardan keyif alıyorum. Gerçi sayıca azaldılar. Çünkü kuşlar da azaldı. Hem, rüzgâr da berbat kokuyor artık. Tamam, uzun ömürlüyüm ama benim de geçici bir şey olmaya hakkım var. Ölümlü olma ayrıcalığım var. Oysa bu ayrıcalık elimden alındı....Dünya da ölümü gözleriyle görmek isteyen varsa bu onların sorunu, benim değil. Onlar için Ebediyet'i oynayamam. Ölüm isteyen, ağaçlara başvurmasın. Görmek istedikleri o ise, birbirlerinin gözlerine baksınlar ve ölümü orada görsünler.│ Rüzgarın On İki Yakası - Yolun Yönü "
10 " Life loves to know itself, out to its furthest limits; to embrace complexity is its delight. Our difference is our beauty. "
11 " Professor Barry Pennywither sat in a cold, shadowy garret and stared at the table in front of him, on which lay a book and a breadcrust. The bread had been his dinner, the book had been his lifework. Both were dry. "
12 " Gerçekliğin korkunç adaletini anlamaya başlayıp kabullenince bu acı adaletsizlik için akıttıkları gözyaşları kurur. Yine de gözyaşları ve öfkeleri, iyiliklerini sınamaları ve çaresizliklerini kabullenmeleridir belki de yaşamlarındaki ihtişamın gerçek kaynağı. Mutlulukları ruhsuz, sorumsuz bir mutluluk değildir. Çocuk gibi kendilerinin de özgür olmadıklarını bilirler. Duygudaşlığı bilirler. "
13 " Where do you get your ideas from, Ms Le Guin?' From forgetting Dostoyevsky and reading road signs backwards, naturally. Where else? "
14 " Lately, in these lone years in the middle of his life, he had been burdened with a sense of waste, of unspent strength; "
15 " Shelley was kicked out of Oxford- I think the story is unauthenticated, but who cares- because he painted a sign on the end wall of a dead-end alley: THIS WAY TO HEAVEN. I feel that every now and then his sign needs repainting. "
16 " As Jean-Paul Sartre has said in his lovable way, ‘Hell is other people. "
17 " No harmony endures,” said the young king. “None has ever been achieved,” said the Plenipotentiary. “The pleasure is in trying. "
18 " But it’s not an anti-drug story either. My only strong opinion about drugs (pot, hallucinogens, alcohol) is anti-prohibition and pro-education. I have to admit that people who expand their consciousness by living instead of by taking chemicals usually come back with much more interesting reports of where they’ve been. But I’m an addict myself (tobacco), and it would be plain silly in me to celebrate or to condemn anybody else for a similar dependence. "
19 " It is hard to meet a stranger. Even the greatest extravert meeting even the meekest stranger knows a certain dread, though he may not know he knows it. Will he make a fool of me wreck my image of myself invade me destroy me change me? Will he be different from me? Yes, that he will. There’s the terrible thing: the strangeness of the stranger. After two years on a dead planet, and the last half year isolated as a team of two, oneself and one other, after that it’s even harder to meet a stranger, however "
20 " It is hard to meet a stranger. Even the greatest extravert meeting even the meekest stranger knows a certain dread, though he may not know he knows it. Will he make a fool of me wreck my image of myself invade me destroy me change me? Will he be different from me? Yes, that he will. There’s the terrible thing: the strangeness of the stranger. "
