The Last Dark Quotes

“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, The Last Dark

“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, The Last Dark

“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, The Last Dark

“There’s no such thing as failure. Sort of progress is better than nothing. Under the circumstances, it’s probably impressive. We can only do what we can.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Last Dark

“The purpose of life, Cirrus Kindwind had once assured him, is to choose, and to act upon the choice.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Last Dark

“All paths lead to death," she said when she found her voice. "This the Worm merely hastens.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Last Dark

“[There is] truth on the far side of despair and doom. All we have to do is find it.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Last Dark

“The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever BOOK ONE: LORD FOUL’S BANE BOOK TWO: THE ILLEARTH WAR BOOK THREE: THE POWER THAT PRESERVES The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant BOOK ONE: THE WOUNDED LAND BOOK TWO: THE ONE TREE BOOK THREE: WHITE GOLD WIELDER The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant BOOK ONE: THE RUNES OF THE EARTH BOOK TWO: FATAL REVENANT BOOK THREE: AGAINST ALL THINGS ENDING DAUGHTER OF REGALS AND OTHER TALES”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Last Dark