Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes

We have turned away from the natural world. Instead, it's all about money and power.

Life finds its wealth by the claims of the world, and its worth by the claims of love.

When someone chooses to value herself over the things she can buy, true transformation begins.

Rejection is a big part of show business. It can be tough on anyone who doesn't have fairly good self-esteem. Especially kids, as they try to discover who they are.

Too many people today know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

'Material' is meant to be a fun, lighthearted song about the tiny bit of materialism that's in all of us. The message is meant to translate the notion that you don't need luxury items to feel special; you already are special.

If you start thinking that only your biggest and shiniest moments count, you're setting yourself up to feel like a failure most of the time.

It is necessary that one be a light to oneself in a world that is becoming utterly dark.

I prayed hard and only gradually became aware that this fierce praying was a way of finding prologue and entrance into my own writing. This came as both astonishment and relief. When I thought God had abandoned me, I discovered that He had simply given me a different voice to praise the inexhaustible beauty of the made world.

The great weakness of the West is that it has nothing with which to inspire loyalty except wealth. But what is wealth? Another washing machine, a bigger car, a nicer house to live in? Not much to feed the spirit in all that.

One day there springs up the desire for money and for all that money can provide — the superfluous, luxury in eating, luxury in dressing, trifles. Needs increase because one thing calls for another. The result is uncontrollable dissatisfaction. Let us remain as empty as possible so that God can fill us up.

Tell me if the lovers are losers... tell me if any get more than the lovers.

It's not easy to be Light when you've been Dark. It's almost too much to ask anyone. -Macon Ravenwood

Man today being concerned with production and consumption as ends in themselves, has very little engergy time to devote himself to the true religious experience.

Self-worth comes from who we are in Christ, not what we accomplish in this world.

The world will try to tell you that you need stuff to be somebody. Don't listen

Why are you so enchanted by this world, when a mine of gold lies within you?

In an ugly and unhappy world the richest man can purchase nothing but ugliness and unhappiness.

We call it keeping up with the Joneses. They buy a boat and we buy a bigger one. They get a new TV and we get a big screen. They start a business and we start planning our articles of incorporation and the first stock release. And while we're so busy keeping up, we ignore our soul, the inner voice, that's telling us that it really wants to teach children to read. While it helps to identify with each other, we're not the same. So why compare ourselves on the basis of material things? Are you walking a path with heart in your own life, regardless of what others have?

But more importantly, you are a gift, to all who know you, whether or not they realize it. If they don't, they are blind. You have a special place in this world. All you hvae to do is find it.

The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune.

They miss the whisper that runs any day in your mind, "Who are you really, wanderer?"-- and the answer you have to give no matter how dark and cold the world around you is: "Maybe I'm a king.

I am alone in the world, and yet not alone enough to make each hour holy. I am lowly in this world, and yet not lowly enough for me to be just a thing to you, dark and shrewd. I want my will and I want to go with my will as it moves towards action.

Because we lack a divine Center our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things.

I realized that whatever your path, whatever your calling, the most damaging thing you can do is let other voices define you and drown out your own. You've got to block them out and find that place deep inside you, shaken but still intact, and hold on to it.