Stephen R. Donaldson Quotes & Sayings

Ah, deserve," sighed Kindwind. "The notion of deserved and undeserved is a fancy. Knowing both life and death, we endeavor to impose worth and meaning upon our deeds, and thereby to comfort our fear of impermanence. We choose to imagine that our lives merit continuance. Mayhap all sentience shares a similar fancy. Mayhap the Earth itself, being sentient in its fashion, shares it. Nonetheless it is a fancy. A wider gaze does not regard us in that wise. The stars do not. Perhaps the Creator does not. The larger truth is merely that all things end. By that measure, our fancies cannot be distinguished from dust. "For this reason, Giants love tales. Our iteration of past deeds and desires and discoveries provides the only form of permanence to which mortal life can aspire. That such permanence is a chimera does not lessen its power to console. Joy is in the ears that hear. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Whatever the explanation, it's perfectly obvious that our educational system has nothing to do with education: it's a babysitting service designed to replicate the worst qualities of the parents. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Everything dies, from the smallest blade of grass to the biggest galaxy. — Stephen R. Donaldson

So now you think the augury was misinterpreted. It said you had to go get someone. It didn't say who that someone was. — Stephen R. Donaldson

for faith and courage are the greatest gift that we can give to our descendants. And the Land holds mysteries of which we know nothing mysteries of hope as well as of peril. — Stephen R. Donaldson

However you look at it, in these books "power" tends to be an expression of the essential nature of the person or being whose power it is. On those occasions when we've seen Lord Foul act directly, he seems to exert the withering force of pure scorn. IMHO, that's pretty intense. — Stephen R. Donaldson

This you have to understand. There's only one way to hurt a man who's lost everything. Give him back something broken. — Stephen R. Donaldson

But he was dreaming. The way to endure a dream was to flow with it until it ended. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Despair and bitterness are not the only songs in the world — Stephen R. Donaldson

It said that the mission's copying costs were too high, so would she please type two hundred fifty copies of the attached letter in addition to her other duties. — Stephen R. Donaldson

In your present state, Chosen, Desecration lies ahead of you. It does not crowd at your back. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Life is risk. All who inhabit the Earth inhale peril with each breath. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Stone and sea are deep in life
Two unalterable symbols of the world
Permanence at rest
And permanence in motion
Participants in the power that remains — Stephen R. Donaldson

Admonitions took over the ravaged playground of his mind. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Dark trees leaped across his vision like aghast dancers in the nacreous light. — Stephen R. Donaldson

He who waits for the sword to fall upon his neck will surely lose his head. — Stephen R. Donaldson

For all contempt turns upon the contemptuous, as it must. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Attempts must be made, even when there can be no hope. The alternative is despair. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Golden Boy with feet of clay
Let me help you on your way
A proper push will take you far -
But what a clumsy lad you are! — Stephen R. Donaldson

I'm not alive." She heard fury climbing to the top of his voice. "I'm a leper. Outcast unclean. Lepers are ugly and filthy. And abominable." His words filled her with horror and protest. "How can it be?" she moaned. "You are not - abominable. What world is it that dares treat you so? — Stephen R. Donaldson

I respect my limitations, but I don't use them as an excuse. — Stephen R. Donaldson

But he could not call the doctors at the leprosarium. They would return him to Louisiana. They would treat him and train him and counsel him. They would put him back into life as if his illness were all that mattered, as if wisdom were only skin deep, as if grief and remorse and horror were nothing but illusions, tricks done with mirrors, irrelevant to chrome and porcelain and clean, white, stiff hospital sheets and fluorescent lights. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Be true, unbeliever. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Where do you get dreams like this? — Stephen R. Donaldson

I had no intention of pursuing either the characters or the setting further. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Mortal lives are not stones. They are not seas. For impermanence to judge itself by the standards of permanence is folly. Or it is arrogance. Life merely is what it is, neither more nor less. To deem it less because it is not more is to heed the counsels of the Despiser. — Stephen R. Donaldson

One word more, a final caution: Do not forget whom to fear at the last. I have had to be content with killing and torment; but now my plans are laid, and I have begun. I shall not rest until I have eradicated hope from the Earth. Think on that, and be dismayed! — Stephen R. Donaldson

Futility is the defining characteristic of life. — Stephen R. Donaldson

The heart cherishes secrets not worth the telling — Stephen R. Donaldson

Covenant did not reply at once. He trembled also, and hand to clench himself before he could say without a tremor, "Why? Why do you trust me?"
The Hirebrand's eyes gleamed as if he were on the verge of tears, but he was smiling as he said, "You are a man who knows the value of beauty." — Stephen R. Donaldson

In perfect unison, all the townspeople vomited gouts of blood onto the pavement. — Stephen R. Donaldson

His gaze turned cold as he faced her. 'Sure, she's attractive. A stone wall would be attractive if it looked like that. It's her attitude I don't like. There's more to love than just getting your itches scratched. — Stephen R. Donaldson

And you require no answers", Foamfollower was laughing in his gladness, "You are sufficient to every question". — Stephen R. Donaldson

It is wrong to ask for more than you give freely. In this way, we come to resemble what we hate. — Stephen R. Donaldson

I was sitting at the bar of the Hegira that night when Ginny came in. The barkeep, an ancient sad-eyed patriarch named Jose, had just poured me another drink, and I was having one of those rare moments any serious drunk can tell you about. A piece of real quiet. Jose's cheeks bristled because he didn't shave very often, and his apron was dingy because it didn't get washed very often, and his fingernails had little crescents of grime under them. The glass he poured for me wasn't all that clean. But the stuff he poured was golden-amber and beautiful, like distilled sunlight, and it made the whole place soothing as sleep - which drunks know how to value because they don't get much of it. — Stephen R. Donaldson

But my arts are also pure, as a circle is pure, and in a flawed world purity cannot endure. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Another blast from Rivenrock shivered the air. It snatched Mhoram's head up, and he faced Covenant with tears streaming down his cheeks. "It is as I have said," he breathed achingly. "Madness is not the only danger in dreams." — Stephen R. Donaldson

Courage is for the lean. I am wiser. — Stephen R. Donaldson

The purpose of life - if it may be said to have purpose - is not ease. It is to choose, and to act upon the choice. In that task, we are not measured by outcomes. We are measured only by daring and effort and resolve. — Stephen R. Donaldson

For convenience, history is often viewed as a conflict between the instinct for order and the impulse toward chaos. Both are necessary: both are manifestations of the need to survive. Without order, nothing exists: without chaos, nothing grows. And yet the struggle between them sheds more blood than any other war. — Stephen R. Donaldson

She could not distinguish between contrition and self-abasement; between acknowledgment and blame. — Stephen R. Donaldson

That is Lord Foul's way in all things - to force his foes to become that which they most hate, and to destroy that which they most love. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Are you a person - with volition and maybe some stubborness and at least the capacity if not the actual determination to do something surprising - or are you a tool? A tool just serves its user. It's only as good as the skill of its user, and its not good for anything else. So if you want to accomplish something special - something more than you can do for yourself - you can't use a tool. You have to use a person and hope the surprises will work in your favor. You have to use something that's free to not be what you had in mind. — Stephen R. Donaldson

When all hope was gone, they heeded the counsels of despair. Had they continued to strive, defying their doom, some unforseen wonder might have occurred. And if it did not, still their glory would have surpassed their failure. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Gradually, the night stumbled as if stunned and wandering aimlessly into an overcast day
limped through the wilderland of transition as though there were no knowing where the waste of darkness ended and the ashes of light began. The low clouds seemed full of grief
tense and uneasy with accumulated woe
and yet affectless, unable to rain, as if the air clenched itself too hard for tears. And through the dawn, Atiaran and Covenant moved heavily, unevenly, like pieces of a broken lament. — Stephen R. Donaldson

The idea that his wedding band was some kind of talisman nauseated him like the smell of attar. — Stephen R. Donaldson

We need metaphors of magic and monsters in order to understand the human condition. — Stephen R. Donaldson

I may not yet be as old as dirt, but dirt and I are starting to have an awful lot in common. — Stephen R. Donaldson

There is no life which does not possess its own importance, no life which may not be touched by greatness at any time
Yes, be touched by greatness and have a hand in it.
(from The Mirror of Her Dreams) — Stephen R. Donaldson

Something in her expression made Covenant feel that he came from a very poor world, where no one knew or cared about the healing of stoneware pots. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Misliking the Harrow as I do, I would find no small joy in thwarting him. Have I not admitted that I, too, am prone to greed? But here I personify the united will of the Insequent. Any deviation from that resolve will breach the sacred prohibition which enables the Insequent to endure and prosper. Answering you, I will bring down my own destruction and accomplish only sorrow. — Stephen R. Donaldson

We didn't make the world. All we have to do is live in it. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Do not hurt where holding is enough; do not wound where hurting is enough; do not maim where wounding is enough; and kill not where maiming is enough; the greatest warrior is he who does not need to kill. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Any belief that puts itself beyond doubt nurtures its own collapse. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Mending is harder than breaking. — Stephen R. Donaldson

The portal structure is simply a technique: it is neither necessary nor unnecessary, except as the writer and the story make it so. In the case of 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant,' it was absolutely necessary to my intentions. — Stephen R. Donaldson

So ignorance increases ignorance, and knowledge — Stephen R. Donaldson

But we will trust you nonetheless. You are bitter, and bitterness is a sign of concern. I trust that. — Stephen R. Donaldson

When inadequate men assumed huge burdens, the outcome could only serve Despite. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Perfection cannot endure in an imperfect world. — Stephen R. Donaldson

There is no doom so black or deep that courage and clear sight may not find another truth beyond it. — Stephen R. Donaldson

The conflicts made him an indecisive mediator - a man, as someone had once observed, who couldn't keep his feet out of the shit on either side because he couldn't get the fencepost out of his ass. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Involuntarily, she stopped, jerked up her head, looked around her like a frightened woman. They weren't car horns: they were wind instruments — Stephen R. Donaldson

It may be that hope misleads. But hate - hate corrupts. I have been too quick to hate. I become like what I abhor. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Oh, I have dreams, you fool. I have dreams. I dream of blood. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Pacing back and forth now on the spur of his conflicting needs, Covenant growled, "Baradakas said just about the same thing. By hell! You people terrify me. When I try to be responsible, you pressure me
and when I collapse you
You're not asking the right questions. You don't have the vaguest notion of what a leper is, and it doesn't even occur to you to inquire. _That's_ why Foul chose me for this. Because I can't
Damnation! Why don't you ask me about where I come from? I've got to tell you. The world I come from doesn't allow anyone to live except on its own terms. Those terms
those terms contradict yours."
"What are its terms?" the High Lord asked carefully.
"That your world is a dream." — Stephen R. Donaldson

In accepting the Gift you Honor the Giver — Stephen R. Donaldson

And he who wields white, wild magic gold is a paradox
For he is everything and nothing
Hero and fool
Potent, helpless
And with one word of truth or treachery
He will save or damn the earth
Because he is mad and sane
Cold and passionate
Lost and found — Stephen R. Donaldson

On the whole, she reflected with a loopy clarity while pain clanged back and forth in her head and the guard held her upright, she liked being rescued. It was better than not being rescued. Definitely. — Stephen R. Donaldson

When you've tried all the salves in the world and they don't work, you start thinking about fire — Stephen R. Donaldson

The story of Terisa and Geraden began very much like a fable. She was a princess in a high tower. He was a hero come to rescue her. She was the only daughter of wealth and power. He was the seventh son of the lord of the seventh Care. She was beautiful from the auburn hair that crowned her head to the tips of her white toes. He was handsome and courageous. She was held prisoner by enchantment. He was a fearless breaker of enchantments.
As in all the fables, they were made for each other. — Stephen R. Donaldson

What good are friends who treat you just like your enemies do? — Stephen R. Donaldson

But there's something about sitting at someone else's desk that makes you feel like looking in the drawers. I resisted the impulse briefly. Then I decided what the hell. I was a private investigator. Poking my nose in where it didn't belong came with the territory. — Stephen R. Donaldson

everything that passes unattempted is impossible." At — Stephen R. Donaldson

I can't spend my whole life just sitting on my hands and wondering when I'm going to fade. I can't. That's worse than doing something wrong. Isn't it? — Stephen R. Donaldson

Of the authors published under Ballantine's Adult Fantasy logo, only Evangeline Walton 'spoke' to me. — Stephen R. Donaldson

For a variety of reasons, my books struck the marketplace like a thunderclap; and one of those reasons was that there were so few alternatives available. Readers who loved Tolkien, and who were not satisfied by Terry Brooks, had nowhere else to turn. — Stephen R. Donaldson

He lay in darkness, like a sacrifice; he could hear the teeth of his leprosy devouring his flesh. There was a smell of contempt around him, insisting on his impotence. But his lips were bowed in a placid smile, a look of fondness, as if he had come at last to approve his disintegration. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Their flat, unreadable faces showed no signs of youth or age, as if their relationship with time was somehow ambivalent; and — Stephen R. Donaldson

He was too many things at once - a boy, a man, and everything in between - and the differing parts of himself seldom came into balance. She found him attractive in that way. Yet the perception saddened her: she herself wasn't too many things, but too few. — Stephen R. Donaldson

But then a bubbling tenor voice said kindly, "Do not fear. It is a dream." The reassurance spread over him like a blanket. But he could not feel it with his hands, and the ambulance kept on moving. Needing the blanket, he clenched at the empty air until his knuckles were white with loneliness. — Stephen R. Donaldson

power is a dreadful thing, and that the knowledge of power dims the seeing of the wise. — Stephen R. Donaldson

It was the responsibility of the living to make meaningful the sacrifices of the dead. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Are you a storyteller, Thomas Covenant?"
Absently he replied, "I was, once."
"And you gave it up? Ah, that is as sad a tale in three words as any you might have told me. But a life without a tale is like a sea without salt. How do you live?"
... Unconsciously, he clenched his fist over his ring. "I live."
"Another?" Foamfollower returned. "In two words, a story sadder than the first. Say no more
with one word you will make me weep. — Stephen R. Donaldson

The speed felt tremendous. And the bottom of the ravine was treacherous. She ought to control her mount somehow - slow it; steer it to safer footing. Of course. And while she was at it, she ought to defeat the Alend Monarch's army, take care of Master Gilbur and the arch-Imager Vagel, and produce peace on earth. While composing great music with her free hand.
Instead of doing all that, however, she concentrated with a pure white intensity that resembled terror on simply staying in the saddle — Stephen R. Donaldson

Steven Erikson is an extraordinary writer. I read Gardens of the Moon with great pleasure. And now that I have read it, I would be hard pressed to decide what I enjoyed more: the richly and ominously magical world of Malaz and Genabackis; the large cast of sympathetically-rendered characters; or the way the story accumulates to a climax that hits like machinegun fire. My advice to anyone who might listen to me is, Treat yourself to Gardens of the Moon. And my entirely selfish advice to Steven Erikson is, write faster. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Part of him wanted to weep ... but his purpose was rigid within him. He felt he could not bend to gentleness without breaking. — Stephen R. Donaldson

For a moment after his voice faltered and fell, the sanctuary was silent, and the voice throbbed like weeping, as if in his words the people recognized themselves, recognized the failure he described as their own. But then a new voice arose. Saltheart Foamfollower said boldly, "My Lord, we have not reached our end. True, the work of our lifetime has been to comprehend and consolidate the gains of our forebearers. But our labour will open the doors of the future. Our children and their children will gain because we have not lost heart, for faith and courage are the greatest gift that we can give to our descendants. And the Land holds mysteries of which we know nothing
mysteries of hope as well as of peril. Be of good heart, Rockbrothers. Your faith is precious above all things." — Stephen R. Donaldson

When the emergency brappers went of they did what any dedicated, well-trained and quick-minded Service personnel would do; they paniced.

From the short story What Makes Us Human. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Joy is in the ears that hear. — Stephen R. Donaldson

Joy is in the ears that hear, not in the mouth that speaks. The world has few stories glad in themselves, and we must have gay ears to defy Despite"

Foamfollower from (Lord Foul's Bane; 1977) — Stephen R. Donaldson

he felt as tired as if he had spent the whole night shouting at himself. While — Stephen R. Donaldson