The Left Hand of Darkness Quotes

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.

The Left Hand of Darkness

When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.

The Left Hand of Darkness

At the pit's bottom is no anger.

The Left Hand of Darkness

To be an atheist is to maintain God. His existence or his non-existence, it amounts to much the same, on the plane of proof.

The Left Hand of Darkness

But it doesn't take a thousand men to open a door, my lord." "It might to keep it open.

The Left Hand of Darkness

... there are things that outweigh comfort, unless one is an old woman or a cat.

The Left Hand of Darkness

Cinders patter, falling with the snow. We creep infinitesimally northward through the dirty chaos of a world in the process of making itself. Praise then Creation unfinished!

The Left Hand of Darkness

It is yin and yang. Light is the left hand of darkness... how did it go? Light, dark. Fear, courage. Cold, warmth. Female, male. It is yourself, Therem. Both and one. A shadow on snow.

The Left Hand of Darkness

The unknown," said Faxe's soft voice in the forest, "the unforetold, the unproven, that is what life is based on. Ignorance is the ground of thought. Unproof is the ground of action. If it were proven that there is no God there would be no religion. ...

The Left Hand of Darkness

Why are my sons followed thus by darkness?' ...'Because they were born in the house of flesh, therefore death follows at their heels.

The Left Hand of Darkness

Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dulls and goes to dust. Facts are ...

The Left Hand of Darkness

I suspect that the distinction between a maternal and a paternal instinct is scarcely worth making; the parental instinct, the wish to protect, to further, is not a sex-linked characteristic…

The Left Hand of Darkness

The First Mobile, if one is sent, must be warned that unless he is very self-assured, or senile, his pride will suffer. A man wants his virility regarded, a woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard...

The Left Hand of Darkness

I expect it will turn out that sexual intercourse is possible between Gethenian double-sexed and Hainish-norm one-sexed human beings, though such intercourse will inevitably be sterile. It remains to be proved; Estraven and I proved nothing except pe...

The Left Hand of Darkness

Somewhere in the notes Estraven wrote during our trek across the Gobrin Ice he wonders why his companion is ashamed to cry. I could have told him even then that it was not shame so much as fear. Now I went on through the Sinoth Valley, through the ev...

The Left Hand of Darkness

To learn which questions are unanswerable, and : this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.

The Left Hand of Darkness

A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing profound hurt.

The Left Hand of Darkness

Truth is a matter of the imagination.

The Left Hand of Darkness