# Quote — Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

> I know what they think they seek. But I know it to be a lie. Listen to me, Arren. You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man nor any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: the gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose....That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes; it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself? Would you give up the craft of your hands, and the passion of your heart, and the light of sunrise and sunset, to buy safety for yourself—safety forever? That is what they seek to do on Wathort and Lorbanery and elsewhere. That is the message that those who know how to hear have heard: By denying life you may deny death and live forever!—And this message I do not hear, Arren, for I will not hear it. I will not take the counsel of despair.

- Author: [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md)
- Book: [The Farthest Shore](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin#The_Farthest_Shore_(1972)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore/i-know-what

## More from this book

> “There’s nothing to fear, Lebannen,” he said gently, mockingly. “They were only the dead.”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore/theres-nothing-to-fear.md)

> “You exist: without name, without form. You cannot see the light of day; you cannot see the dark. You sold the green earth and the sun and stars to save yourself. But you have no self. All that which you sold, that is yourself. You have given everything for nothing. And so now you seek to draw the world to you, all that light and life you lost, to fill up your nothingness. But it cannot be filled. Not all the songs of earth, not all the stars of heaven, could fill your emptiness.”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore/you-exist-without.md)

> So the first step out of childhood is made all at once, without looking before or behind, without caution, and nothing held in reserve.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore/so-the-first.md)