Marion Zimmer Bradley > Quotes

“There is no such thing as a true tale. Truth has many faces and the truth is like to the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will, and your own thoughts, whither the road will take you.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“All gods are one god.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“I never left you; I never will leave you. While life lasts, and beyond, I am here.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, Lady of Avalon

“They have not forgotten the Mysteries,' she said, ‘they have found them too difficult. They want a God who will care for them, who will not demand that they struggle for enlightenment, but who will accept them just as they are, with all their sins, and take away their sins with repentance. It is not so, it will never be so, but perhaps it is the only way the unenlightened can bear to think of their Gods.'

Lancelot smiled bitterly. ‘Perhaps a religion which demands that every man must work though lifetime after lifetime for his own salvation is too much for mankind. They want not to wait for God's justice but to see it now. And that is the lure which this new breed of priests has promised them.'

Morgaine knew that he spoke truth, and bowed her head in anguish. ‘And since their view of a God is what shapes their reality, so it shall be–the Goddess was real while mankind still paid homage to her, and created her form for themselves. Now they will make for themselves the kind of God they think they want–the kind of God they deserve, perhaps.'

Well, so it must be, for as man saw reality, so it became.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“By what men think, we create the world around us, daily new.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“I know all about endings. It is beginnings that elude me.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, Ancestors of Avalon

“And so, perhaps, the truth winds somewhere between the road to Glastonbury, Isle of the Priests, and the road to Avalon, lost forever in the mists of the Summer Sea.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“To know you are ignorant is the beginning of wisdom.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley

“The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Fall of Atlantis

“Of all things we mortals are called upon to do, the most difficult is forgiveness; in order to truly do it, you will probably have to behave as if you already have forgiven for quite a while before you have actually done so.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, Ancestors of Avalon

“All the tears women shed, they leave no mark on the world...”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“But this is my truth; I who am Morgaine tell you these things, Morgaine who was in later days called Morgan le Fay.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“If you own a machine, you are in turn owned by it, and spend your time serving it...”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley

“For this is the thing the priests do not know, with their One God and One Truth; that there is no such thing as a true tale. Truth has many faces and the truth is like the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will, and your own thoughts, whither the road will take you, and whether, at the end, you arrive at the Holy Isle of Eternity or among the priests with their bells and their death and their Satan and hell and damnation...but perhaps I am unjust even to them. Even the Lady of the Lake, who hated a priest's robe as she would have hated a poisonous viper, and with good cause too, chid me once for speaking evil of the God.

'For all the Gods are one god,' she said to me then, as she had said many times before, and as I have said to my own novices many times, and as every priestess who comes after me will say again, 'and all the Goddesses are one Goddess, and their is only one Initiator. And to every man his own truth, and the God within.'

And so, perhaps, the truth winds somewhere between the road to Glastonbury, Isle of the Priests, and the road to Avalon, lost forever in the mists of the Summer Sea.

But this is my truth, I who am Morgaine tell you these things, Morgaine who was in later days called Morgan le Fay.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“Never name the well from which you will not drink.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“I think too many people presume to read the divine Scriptures and fall into such terrors as this,' said Patricius sternly. 'Those who presume on their learning will learn, I trust, to listen to their priests for the true interpretations.'
The Merlin smiled gently. 'I cannot join you in that wish, brother. I am dedicated to the belief that it is God's will that all men should strive for wisdom in themselves, not look to it from some other. Babes, perhaps, must have their food chewed for them by a nurse, but men may drink and eat of wisdom for themselves.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“Arthur, their young king, like a hero out of legend.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“There's no "magic secret"; writing is like everything else; ten percent inspiration or talent, and ninety percent hard work. Persistence; keeping at it till you get there. As Agnes de Mille said, it means working every day—bored, tired, weary, or with a fever of a hundred and two.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley

“Love is the only prayer I know.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“Magic is a matter of focusing the disciplined will. But sometimes the will must be abandoned. The secret lies in knowing when to exercise control, and when to let go.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, Lady of Avalon

“A priestess of Avalon does not lie. But I am cast out of Avalon, and for this, and unless it is all to be for nothing, I must lie, and lie well and quickly”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“Knowledge was like a mouthful of dust.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley

“Remain true to yourself, child. If you know your own heart, you will always have one friend who does not lie.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Forest House

“Sometimes the will must be abandoned. The secret lies in knowing when to exercise control, and when to let go.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley

“Rome was mud and smoky skies; the rank smell of the Tiber and the exotically spiced cooking fires of a hundred different nationalities. Rome was white marble and gilding and heady perfumes; the blare of trumpets and the shrieking of market-women and the eternal, sub-aural hum of more people, speaking more languages than Gaius had ever imagined existed, crammed together on seven hills whose contours had long ago disappeared beneath this encrustation if humanity. Rome was the pulsing heart of the world.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Forest House

“By and large, the kind of science fiction which makes tomorrow's headlines as near as this morning's coffee has enlarged popular awareness of the modern, miraculous world of science we live in. It has helped generations of young people feel at age with a changing world.

But fashions change, old loves return, and now that Sputniks clutter up the sky with new and unfamiliar moons, the readers of science fiction are willing to wait to read tomorrow's headlines. Once again, I think, there is a place, a wish, a need for the wonder and color of the world way out. The world beyond the stars. The world we won't live to see. That is why I wrote The Door Through Space.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Door Through Space

“Morgaine laughed and mocked, but when it was a real trouble, no one could be kinder.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“No man or woman can live another's fate”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley

“I have neither talent or taste for kingship, cousin. I am a warrior, and to dwell always in one place and live at court would weary me to death!”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“Even in her mind the words had the forlorn gallantry of someone whistling in the dark.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, Witchlight

“Dea è ogni cosa in natura è ogni cosa in natura è sacra. Guarda questo è il suo volto. Ascolta questa è la sua voce Lei è in tutte le cose belle e in quelle terribili anche”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley

“Ai miei tempi sono stata chiamata in molti modi: sorella, amante, sacerdotessa, maga, regina.
Ora in verità sono una maga e forse verrà un giorno in cui queste cose dovranno essere conosciute”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“I should know, for i am Morgain Le Fay, priestess of the Isle of Avalon, where the ancient religion of the Mother Goddess is born”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“Si los hombres buenos como tú no quieren hacerse cargo -dijo Danilo-, ¿entonces quién queda, salvo los hombres perversos que no deberían hacerse cargo?”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Heritage of Hastur

“И за мен времето е враг, но по друг начин. За останалите тече в една посока, а у мен се гърчи и извива, блуждае към земята, лъдето "никога" е по-истинско от "сега" ...”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, Stormqueen!

“He said, and his voice was strained as if he had had a mortal wound, 'Gwenhwyfar-' He so seldom spoke her formal name, it was always my lady or my queen, or when he spoke to her in play it was always Gwen. When he spoke it now, it seemed to her she had never heard a sweeter sound. 'Gwenhwyfar. Why do you weep?'
Now she must lie, and lie well, because, she could not in honor tell him the truth. She said, 'Because-' and stopped, and then, in a choking voice, she said, 'because I do not know how I shall live if you go away.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“Los dos se llamaban Rafael y ambos habían hecho un juramento, lucharon juntos, murieron y fueron enterrados en la misma tumba..." Como no sabía muy bien lo que hacía, extendió la mano hacia Regis y tomó la de él en la suya. Dijo, "Me gustaría morir así. ¿A ti no?”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Heritage of Hastur

“Mas o caminho que é construído com base na esperança é mais agradável para o viajante do que uma estrada construída com desespero, embora ambas possam levar ao mesmo destino.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Fall of Atlantis

“Mas existe uma teia... uma teia de escuridão tecida em torno de todos nós. E enquanto o tempo continuar a existir, nunca poderá ser desfeita ou destruída. É o karma.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Fall of Atlantis