A Quote by Ursula K. Le Guin

Dead anarchists make martyrs, you know, and keep living for centuries. But absent ones can be forgotten.

Ursula K. Le Guin

Quote Topics

Absent Centuries Dead Forgotten Keep Know Living Make Martyrs

Quote Author

Ursula K. Le Guin
American - Novelist
October 21, 1929 - January 22, 2018

Our admiration is so given to dead martyrs that we have little time for living heroes.

Elbert Hubbard

Martyrs, martyrs, martyrs,... we want a million martyrs to march on Jerusalem.

Yasser Arafat

There are Anarchists in other parts of the world who are unable to, comprehend the position of the Spanish Anarchists. I do not pretend to censor these Anarchists.

Federica Montseny

I know why we try to keep the dead alive: we try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us. I also know that if we are to live ourselves there comes a point at which we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead.

Joan Didion

For my own part, I would rather be in company with a dead man than with an absent one; for if the dead man gives me no pleasure, at least he shows me no contempt; whereas the absent one, silently indeed, but very plainly, tells me that he does not think me worth his attention.

Lord Chesterfield

And little he knew of the things that ink may do, how it can mark a dead man's thought for the wonder of later years, and tell of happening that are gone clean away, and be a voice for us out of the dark of time, and save many a fragile thing from the pounding of heavy ages; or carry to us, over the rolling centuries, even a song from lips long dead on forgotten hills.

Lord Dunsany

Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten, Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold, Let it be forgotten forever and ever, Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.

Sara Teasdale

And I keep on fighting for the things I want. Though I know that when you're dead you can't. But I'd rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave.

Jimmy Cliff

Painting is possessed of divine power, for not only does it make the absent present, but also makes the dead almost alive.

Leon Battista Alberti

Every actor has a natural animosity toward every other actor, present or absent, living or dead.

Louise Brooks

Every actor has a natural animosity toward every other actor, present or absent, living or dead

Louise Brooks

O, because I have had only that kind of benevolence which consists in lying on a sofa, and cursing the church and clergy for not being martyrs and confessors. One can see, you know, very easily, how others ought to be martyrs.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

At least one reason for trying to live lives that make a difference is that by so living, we hope we will not be forgotten by those who benefit from our trying to make a difference. Yet to try to insure we will not be forgotten too often results in desperate manipulative strategies that are doomed to fail.

Stanley Hauerwas

In China, the dead are not forgotten - my relatives cheerfully pointed out all the niches of deceased friends and family, as if gesturing at the homes of the living.

Tess Gerritsen

Living becomes a glorious experience only when it is sweetened by tolerance and love. Willingness to compromise with others ways of living and cooperation in common tasks, these make living happy and fruitful. Certain modes of behaviour have been laid down and proved beneficial by centuries of practice.