Earthseed: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents

by Octavia E. Butler

PRODIGY IS, AT ITS essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanaticism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all.

A lot of people seem to believe in a big-daddy-God or a big-cop-God or a big-king-God. They believe in a kind of super-person. A few believe God is another word for nature. And nature turns out to mean just about anything they happen not to understand or feel in control of.

I don’t think I’ll ever trust her again, and I hate that. She was my best friend. Now she isn’t.

The thing is, even with my writing problems, every time I understand a little more, I wonder why it’s taken me so long—why there

was ever a time when I didn’t understand a thing so obvious and real and true.

All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change.

A tree Cannot grow In its parents’ shadows.

adults around him.” “I

Jarret condemns the burnings, but does so in such mild language that his people are free to hear what they want to hear. As for the beatings, the tarring and feathering, and the destruction of “heathen houses of devil-worship,” he has a simple answer: “Join us! Our doors are open to every nationality, every race! Leave your sinful past behind, and become one of us. Help us to make America great again.”

Beware: At war Or at peace, More people die Of unenlightened self-interest Than of any other disease.

How much of this nonsense does he believe, I wonder, and how much does he say just because he knows the value of dividing in order to conquer and to rule?

Partnership is giving, taking, learning, teaching, offering the greatest possible benefit while doing the least possible harm.

Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.