Lord Foul's Bane Quotes

“We didn't make the world. All we have to do is live in it.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Where do you get dreams like this?”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Something in her expression made Covenant feel that he came from a very poor world, where no one knew or cared about the healing of stoneware pots.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Gradually, the night stumbled as if stunned and wandering aimlessly into an overcast day -- limped through the wilderland of transition as though there were no knowing where the waste of darkness ended and the ashes of light began. The low clouds seemed full of grief -- tense and uneasy with accumulated woe -- and yet affectless, unable to rain, as if the air clenched itself too hard for tears. And through the dawn, Atiaran and Covenant moved heavily, unevenly, like pieces of a broken lament.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Futility is the defining characteristic of life.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives: for all the scents of green things growing, each breath is but an exhalation of the grave. Bodies jerk like puppet corpses, and hell walks laughing— Laughing”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Joy is in the ears that hear, not in the mouth that speaks. The world has few stories glad in themselves, and we must have gay ears to defy Despite"

Foamfollower from (Lord Foul's Bane; 1977)”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“A real man—real in all the ways that we recognize as real—finds himself suddenly abstracted from the world and deposited in a physical situation which could not possibly exist: sounds have aroma, smells have color and depth, sights have texture, touches have pitch and timbre. There he is informed by a disembodied voice that he has been brought to that place as a champion for his world. He must fight to the death in single combat against a champion from another world. If he is defeated, he will die, and his world—the real world—will be destroyed because it lacks the inner strength to survive.

The man refuses to believe that what he is told is true. He asserts that he is either dreaming or hallucinating, and declines to be put in the false position of fighting to the death where no "real" danger exists. He is implacable in his determination to disbelieve his apparent situation, and does not defend himself when he is attacked by the champion of the other world.

Question: Is the man's behavior courageous or cowardly? This is the fundamental question of ethics.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“For a moment after his voice faltered and fell, the sanctuary was silent, and the voice throbbed like weeping, as if in his words the people recognized themselves, recognized the failure he described as their own. But then a new voice arose. Saltheart Foamfollower said boldly, "My Lord, we have not reached our end. True, the work of our lifetime has been to comprehend and consolidate the gains of our forebearers. But our labour will open the doors of the future. Our children and their children will gain because we have not lost heart, for faith and courage are the greatest gift that we can give to our descendants. And the Land holds mysteries of which we know nothing -- mysteries of hope as well as of peril. Be of good heart, Rockbrothers. Your faith is precious above all things."”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“It may be that hope misleads. But hate—hate corrupts. I have been too quick to hate. I become like what I abhor.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Pacing back and forth now on the spur of his conflicting needs, Covenant growled, "Baradakas said just about the same thing. By hell! You people terrify me. When I try to be responsible, you pressure me -- and when I collapse you -- You're not asking the right questions. You don't have the vaguest notion of what a leper is, and it doesn't even occur to you to inquire. _That's_ why Foul chose me for this. Because I can't-- Damnation! Why don't you ask me about where I come from? I've got to tell you. The world I come from doesn't allow anyone to live except on its own terms. Those terms-- those terms contradict yours."

"What are its terms?" the High Lord asked carefully.

"That your world is a dream."”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Melenkurion abatha! Binas mill Bana Nihoram khabaal! Melenkurion abatha! Abatha Nimoram!”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“But we will trust you nonetheless. You are bitter, and bitterness is a sign of concern. I trust that.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“He lay in darkness, like a sacrifice; he could hear the teeth of his leprosy devouring his flesh. There was a smell of contempt around him, insisting on his impotence. But his lips were bowed in a placid smile, a look of fondness, as if he had come at last to approve his disintegration.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“But then a bubbling tenor voice said kindly, "Do not fear. It is a dream." The reassurance spread over him like a blanket. But he could not feel it with his hands, and the ambulance kept on moving. Needing the blanket, he clenched at the empty air until his knuckles were white with loneliness.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“for faith and courage are the greatest gift that we can give to our descendants. And the Land holds mysteries of which we know nothing mysteries of hope as well as of peril.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“A real man—real in all the ways that we recognize as real—finds himself suddenly abstracted from the world and deposited in a physical situation which could not possibly exist: sounds have aroma, smells have color and depth, sights have texture, touches have pitch and timbre. There he is informed by a disembodied voice that he has been brought to that place as a champion for his world. He must fight to the death in single combat against a champion from another world. If he is defeated, he will die, and his world—the real world—will be destroyed because it lacks the inner strength to survive. The man refuses to believe that what he is told is true. He asserts that he is either dreaming or hallucinating, and declines to be put in the false position of fighting to the death where no “real” danger exists. He is implacable in his determination to disbelieve his apparent situation, and does not defend himself when he is attacked by the champion of the other world. Question: is the man’s behavior courageous or cowardly? This is the fundamental question of ethics. Ethics!”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“I’m not alive.” She heard fury climbing to the top of his voice. “I’m a leper. Outcast unclean. Lepers are ugly and filthy. And abominable.” His words filled her with horror and protest. “How can it be?” she moaned. “You are not—abominable. What world is it that dares treat you so?”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“In perfect unison, all the townspeople vomited gouts of blood onto the pavement.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Covenant did not reply at once. He trembled also, and hand to clench himself before he could say without a tremor, "Why? Why do you trust me?"

The Hirebrand's eyes gleamed as if he were on the verge of tears, but he was smiling as he said, "You are a man who knows the value of beauty."”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“The idea that his wedding band was some kind of talisman nauseated him like the smell of attar.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“power is a dreadful thing, and that the knowledge of power dims the seeing of the wise.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Soon Covenant was lost again; the complexities of the”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“redolent”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Something there is in beauty
which grows in the soul of the beholder
like a flower.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“But while he labored, his children, his myriad bright children, found the rainbow, and were filled with rejoicing at its beauty. Together, they climbed into the heavens and scampered happily up the bow, dancing gay dances across its colors.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“But when morning came, she once more took charge of their pace. Under the pall of the despoiled moon she seemed to have reached a resolution, and now she drove herself forward as if she were spurred by some self-curse or flagellation which rejected through naked determination the logic of defeat.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“Gradually night stumbled as if stunned and wandering aimlessly into an overcast day—limped through the wilderland of transition as though there were no knowing where the waste of darkness ended and the ashes of light began. The low clouds seemed full of grief—tense and uneasy with accumulated woe—and yet affectless, unable to rain, as if the air clenched itself too hard for tears. And through the dawn, Atiaran and Covenant moved heavily, unevenly, like pieces of a broken lament.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“But where Lena was fresh and slim of line, full of unbroken newness, Atiaran appeared complex, almost self-contradictory. Her soft surface, her full figure, she carried as if it were a hindrance to the hard strength of experience within her, as if she lived with her body on the basis of an old and difficult truce. And her face bore the signs of that truce; her forehead seemed prematurely lined, and her deep spacious eyes appeared to open inward on a weary battleground of doubts and uneasy reconciliations. Looking at her over the stone table, Covenant received a double impression of a frowning concern—the result of knowing and fearing more than other people realized—and an absent beauty that would rekindle her face if only she would smile.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane

“He clung to his bitter anger as to an anchor of sanity; he needed fury in order to survive, to keep his grip like a stranglehold on life. Some days he went from sun to sun without any rest from rage.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane