Tehanu Quotes
"I’ve generally lived near tombstones," she said to her daughter.
I used to live in a silent house, alone," she thought. "I will do so again.
"I served them and I left them," she said. "I will not let them have you."
"Farther west than west beyond the land my people are dancing on the other wind."
"What’s a child for? What’s it there for? To be used. To be raped, to be gelded—"
"I lived long enough in the dark," she said.
"Farther west than west," she said; "the farthest island."
"Do you remember, Tenar, when we came first to Havnor?"
"There is a king in Havnor, at the center of the world."
"I have no power, nothing. I gave it—spent it—all I had."
"A cup of water in all the desert? Is the desert gone?"
"You don’t get without you give as much."
"I saw great beings. I sought the little girl but I saw them, flying in the mountains, flying in the clouds."
"He will never touch you again. He must deal with me."
"I am the creature of darkness, swollen with darkness."
"We will starve him, Therru. We’ll starve him till he eats himself."
"I was eaten long ago. Go clean your own house!"
"It was as if her touch restored the truth."
"What I don’t understand is why he brought me back."
"What she thought first was that she had taken the right road."
"They could not stay here in the desecrated house, the house where hatred had come in."
"You aren’t the scars. You aren’t ugly. You are Therru, and beautiful."
"What’s the strength of that woman, for she’s not a fool, to hold a fire by the hand, to spin thread with the whirlwind?"
"The flames swam, flared up, sank away, brightened again against the sooty stone, against the dark sky, against the pale sky, the gulfs of evening, the depths of air and light beyond the world."
"What are we so afraid of? Why do we let ’em tell us we’re afraid? What is it they’re afraid of?"
"She was a little uneasy. As they came out onto the turn they saw the dark-blue bay below them, and coming into it between the Armed Cliffs a beautiful ship under full sail."
"What power she is, I don’t know, I don’t say. But it’s beyond my teaching, I know that."
"The making from the unmaking, The ending from the beginning, Who shall know surely?"
"Nothing is wasted, nothing is ever wasted."
"If your strength is only the other's weakness, you live in fear."
"There is a freedom beyond that. Beyond payment, retribution, redemption—beyond all the bargains and the balances, there is freedom."
"Life danced me. I know the dances. But I don’t know who the dancer is."
"Real power, real freedom, would lie in trust, not force."
"What we know is the doorway between them that we enter departing."
"Among all beings ever returning, the eldest, the Doorkeeper, Segoy . . ."
"All the greatness of men is founded on shame, made out of it."