Ricordiamo Le Quotes

Night falls; the traveler must pass down village streets, between the houses with yellow- lit windows, and on out into the darkness of the fields. Each alone, they go west or north, towards the mountains. They go on. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

As if the whimsy of chugging through a gargantuan slice of watermelon wasn't enough, you can actually smell the mouthwatering scent of watermelon as you breeze through it. The box of animal crackers that you travel through smells of vanilla cookies-- always a soothing scent--and a giant gnawed apple exudes an apple fragrance as you pass. ~ Leslie Le Mon

There was a pause. Mendel said: 'It's the devil you don't know that gets you. ~ John Le Carre

Love that wants only to get, to possess, is a monstrous thing ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

WAKE! for the sun, the shepherd of the sky,
Has penned the stars within their fold on high,
And, shaking darkness from his mighty limbs,
Scatters the daylight from his burning eye. ~ Richard Le Gallienne

Acquired or artificial prestige is much the most common. The mere fact that an individual occupies a certain position, possesses a certain fortune, or bears certain titles, endows him with prestige, however slight his own personal worth. ~ Gustave Le Bon

There is neither source nor end, for all things are in the Center of Time. As all the stars may be reflected in a round raindrop falling in the night: so too do all the stars reflect the raindrop. There is neither darkness nor death, for all things are, in the Light of the Moment, and their end and their beginning are one. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Flik's Fun Fair: Whether or not you have little ones, take a few moments to stroll through this whimsical corner of DCA. ~ Leslie Le Mon

You can keep up that crap for years. But it finally catches up with you. And then you realise all you've done is save your shit to drown in. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Even if there is no hope, I still want whatever I can have. I want him on any terms. ~ Georgia Le Carre

When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Truth, as ever, avoids the stranger. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

A story that has nothing but action and plot is a pretty poor affair; and some great stories have neither. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

I can't decide which color I am. I mean, my father was a black, a real black - oh, he had some white blood, but he was a black - and my mother was a white, and I'm neither one. See, my father really hated my mother because she was white. But he also loved her. But I think she loved his being black much more than she loved him. Well, where does that leave me? I never have figured out." "Brown," he said gently, standing behind her chair. "Shit color." "The color of the earth. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

A good man knows when to sacrifice himself, a bad man survives but loses his soul. ~ John Le Carre

In absence, presence. In death, life. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Their own souls rose and cried
Alarum when they heard the sudden wail
Of stricken freedom and along the gale
Saw her eternal banner quivering wide. ~ John Le Gay Brereton

If I'm ninety and believe I'm forty-five, I'm headed for a very bad time trying to get out of the bathtub. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

I actually love shopping in vintage shops. What I do with the high street, I buy it, then keep it for a while and then wear it when everyone's not wearing it. So I do that: stock up, then keep it hidden! ~ Amber Le Bon

We are all contingent. Resentment is foolish and ungenerous, and even anger is inadequate. I am a fleck of light on the surface of the sea, a glint of light from the evening star. I live in awe. If I never lived at all, yet I am a silent wing on the wind, a bodiless voice in the forest of Albunea. I speak, but all I can say is: Go, go on. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

All you have to do to see life whole is to see it as mortal. I'll die, you'll die; how could we love each other otherwise? ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

To see a candle's light one must take it into a dark place. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

My dear boy', Le Chiffre spoke like a father, 'the game of Red Indians is over, quite over. You have stumbled by mischance into a game for grown-ups and you have already found it a painful experience. You are not equipped, my dear boy, to play games with adults and it very foolish of your nanny in London to have sent you out here with your spade and bucket. Very foolish indeed and most unfortunate for you.'
'But we must stop joking, my dear fellow, although I am sure you would like to follow me in developing this amusing little cautionary tale. ~ Ian Fleming

Why am I despising you when I'm about to change your life? ~ John Le Carre

We pretend a lot of things aren't there. Or we pretend that other things are more important. That's how we survive. ~ John Le Carre

You are the most powerful army in the world; you are the future of this planet. You cannot, you will not spend one more minute of your time looking in a mirror wishing you looked different. ~ Jamie Le Fay

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

People die from lack of shared empathy and affinity. By establishing social connectedness, we give hope a chance and the other can become heaven. ( "Le ciel c'est l'autre" ) ~ Erik Pevernagie

It had never occurred to me before that music and thinking are so much alike. In fact you could say music is another way of thinking, or maybe thinking is another kind of music. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

[Genre is] like working in any form - in poetry, for example. When you work in form, be it a sonnet or villanelle or whatever, the form is there and you have to fill it. And you have to find how to make that form say what you want to say. But what you find, always - I think any poet who's worked in form will agree with me - is that the form leads you to what you want to say. It is wonderful and mysterious. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Writers are two-home men - they want a place outside and a place within. ~ John Le Carre

I didn't know you well at all. Only, when you spoke, I seemed to see clear into you, into the center. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

The dragon spits fire, what extinguishes its tears. When we live in rancor, we are born to be old. (Le dragon crache du feu, - Ce qui éteint ses larmes. - Quand on vit de rancune, - On naît pour être vieux.) ~ Charles De Leusse

I don't want to be a propagandist, no matter how good the cause. I want to tell stories. It's just that the stories have to square with my consciousness as a woman and my conscience as a human being. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Beatha
- do Mháire Mhic Amhlaoibh,
An Fál Mór, Co. Mhaigh Eo.

- Níor airigh tú caint ar an slabhcán? -
arsa Mary Nell le hiontas,
an slabhcán a bhailíodh sí ina gearrchaile di
ar charraigreacha an Fháil Mhóir,
a thugadh sí abhaile
is a ghearradh go mion, é a bhruith ainsin le deoirín uisce.
Nuair a d'fhuaraíodh sé dhéanadh sí leac -
an blas a bhíodh air leis an ngráinne salainn!

Níor bhlais Mary Nell an slabhcán le dhá scór bliain:
- Ní bhadrálann éinne thart anseo a thuilleadh leis,
Róleitheadhach atá siad.
Ach an stuif sin a bhíonns ag fear an tsiopa
I bpotaí beaga a thigeann sé, dath pinc air -
'Yoghurt?'
- Yoghurt. Yoghurt!
M'anam go liveálfainn ar an stuif sin.
M'anam go liveálfainn air. - ~ Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin

But you're so strong. I wish I were strong. I just like eating. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

When you are brought up as a frozen child, you go on freezing. It wasn't until I had my four sons, who have brought me immense joy, that I began to thaw. That I realised how utterly extraordinary my childhood was. ~ John Le Carre

...if your dear heart is wronged, my wild heart bleeds with yours. ~ J. Sheridan Le Fanu

The discovery brings him victory, the kind of victory that isn't the end of a battle but the beginning of a life. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Home's where you go when you run out of homes. ~ John Le Carre

Literature is the extant body of written art. All novels belong to it.
The value judgement concealed in distinguishing one novel as literature and another as genre vanishes with the distinction.
Every readable novel can give true pleasure. Every novel read by choice is read because it gives true pleasure.
Literature consists of many genres, including mystery, science fiction, fantasy, naturalism, realism, magical realism, graphic, erotic, experimental, psychological, social, political, historical, bildungsroman, romance, western, army life, young adult, thriller, etc., etc…. and the proliferating cross-species and subgenres such as erotic Regency, noir police procedural, or historical thriller with zombies.
Some of these categories are descriptive, some are maintained largely as marketing devices. Some are old, some new, some ephemeral.
Genres exist, forms and types and kinds of fiction exist and need to be understood: but no genre is inherently, categorically superior or inferior.

(Hypothesis on Literature vs. Genre) ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

In this he saw that Ogion had been right: the shadow could not draw on his power, so long as he was turned against it. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Well, if he comes when I'm out, tell him to wait. And now, Jeeves, mes gants, mon chapeau, et le whangee de monsieur. I must be popping. ~ P.G. Wodehouse

Oh, never and forever aren't for mortals, love. But we won't be parted till I know it's right that we part. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

I have got into one of my moping moods tonight,' said my father, after a silence; then quoting Shakespeare, whom, by way of keeping up our English, he used to read aloud, he said:

'In truth I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I got it – came by it . . .

I forget the rest. ~ J. Sheridan Le Fanu

When the genuine myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message. You must change your life. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin