Taran Wanderer Quotes

“Life's a forge! Yes, and hammer and anvil, too! You'll be roasted, smelted, and pounded, and you'll scarce know what's happening to you. But stand boldly to it! Metal's worthless till it's shaped and tempered! More labor than luck. Face the pounding, don't fear the proving; and you'll stand well against any hammer and anvil.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Llonio said life was a net for luck; to Hevydd the Smith life was a forge; and to Dwyvach the Weaver-Woman a loom. They spoke truly, for it is all of these. But you,' Taran said, his eyes meeting the potter's, 'you have shown me life is one thing more. It is clay to be shaped, as raw clay on a potter's wheel.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“If I fret over tomorrow, I'll have little joy today.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Trust your luck, Taran Wanderer. But don't forget to put out your nets!”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Craftsmanship isn't like water in an earthen pot, to be taken out by the dipperful until it's empty. No, the more drawn out the more remains.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“I saw myself.... In the time I watched, I saw strength—and frailty. Pride and vanity, courage and fear. Of wisdom, a little. Of folly, much. Of intentions, many good ones; but many more left undone. In this, alas, I saw myself a man like any other.

But this, too, I saw.... Alike as men may seem, each is different as flakes of snow, no two the same. You told me you had no need to seek the Mirror, knowing you were Annlaw Clay-Shaper. Now I know who I am: myself and none other. I am Taran.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“True allegiance is only given willingly.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“If you want truth, you should begin by giving it.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“For Wayfarers still journeying, for Wanderers at rest.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“If life is a loom, the pattern you weave is not so easily unraveled.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Stale water is a poor drink,' said Annlaw. 'Stale skill is worse. And the man who walks in his own footsteps only ends where he began.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Count the deed, not the thought.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“My luck's no greater than yours or any man's. You need only sharpen your eyes to see your luck when it comes, and sharpen your wits to use what falls into your hands.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Is a man truly what he see himself to be?'

'Only if what he sees is true.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“I've heard men complain of doing woman's work, and women complain of doing man's work, but I've never heard the work complain of who did it, so long as it got done!”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“I ask no comfort," Taran replied, "but the truth, be it harsh or happy."
"Ah, my sweet robin," said Orddu, "for the finding of that, nothing is harder. There are those who have spent lifetimes at it, and many in worse plight than yours.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“There are heroes and heroes. I don't deny he's acted bravely on occasion. He's fought beside Lord Gwydion and been proud of himself as a chick wearing eagle's feathers. But that's only one kind of bravery. Has the darling robin ever scratched for his own worms? That's bravery of another sort. And between the two, dear Orwen, he might find the latter shows the greater courage.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Two things never mix: one is enchantments and the other is meddling with them.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“My joy is in the craft, not the gain.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Had I done it sooner, perhaps he might have lived. He was a man of courage and good heart, a proud man. Now he is dead. I saved the signal to use in a worthy cause, and when I found one it was wasted.”

“Wasted?” answered Fflewddur. “I think not. Since you did your best and didn’t begrudge using it, I shouldn’t call it wasted at all.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“I believe you know my quest from its beginning to its end, and that I seed to learn my parentage.

"Parentage?" said Orddu. "Nothing easier. Choose any parents you please. Since none of you has ever known each other, what difference can it possibly make - to them or to you? Believe what you like. You'll be surprised how comforting it is.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“When I was a child I dreamed of adventure, glory, of honor in feats of arms. I think now that these things are shadows.'

'If you see them as shadows then you see them for what they are,' Annlaw agreed. 'Many have pursued honor, and in the pursuit lost more of it than ever they could gain.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Annlaw was silent and intent; his lined face had brightened; the years had fallen away from it. Taran felt his heart fill with a joy that seemed to reach from the potter to himself, and in that moment understood that he was in the presence of a true master craftsman, greater than any he had ever known.

"Fflewddur was wrong," Taran murmured. "If there is enchantment, it lies not in the potter's wheel but in the potter."

"Enchantment there is none," answered Annlaw, never turning from his work. "A gift, perhaps, but a gift that bears with it much toil."

"If I could make a thing of such beauty, it is a toil I would welcome," Taran said.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Alike as men may seem, each is different as flakes of snow, no two the same. You told me you had no need to seek the Mirror, knowing you were Annlaw Clay-Shaper. Now I know who I am: myself and none other. I am Taran.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“What lacks?’ he cried to Annlaw. ‘I could forge a sword well enough and weave a cloak well enough. But now, what I truly long to grasp is beyond my reach. Must the one skill I sought above all be denied me?’ he burst out in an anguished voice. ‘Is the gift forbidden me?’ He bowed his head, and his heart froze even as he spoke the words, for he knew, within himself, he had touched the truth.

Annlaw did not gainsay him, but only looked at him for a long while with deep sadness.

‘Why?’ Taran whispered. ‘Why is this so?’

‘It is a heavy question,’ Annlaw replied at last. He put a hand on Taran’s shoulder. ‘Indeed, no man can answer it. There are those who have labored all their lives to gain the gift, striving until the end only to find themselves mistaken; and those who had it born in them yet never knew; those who lost heart too soon; and those who should never have begun at all.

‘Count yourself lucky,’ the potter went on, ‘that you have understood this now and not spent your years in vain hope. This much have you learned, and no learning is wasted.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“I have the sword I fashioned,' Taran proudly cried, 'the cloak I wove, and the bowl I shaped. And the friendship of those in the fairest land of Prydain. No man can find greater treasure.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Then we must say farewell," answered the weaver-woman. "But mind you," she added, in her usual sharp tone, "if life is a loom, the pattern you weave is not so easily unraveled.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“gay”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“In the race of men is much greed and envy; but of truth, little.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer

“Indeed, Annlaw puts himself into the clay and makes it live with his own life.”
― Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer