Top 50 Stephen R. Donaldson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “In accepting the Gift you Honor the Giver.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

2. “Do not hurt where holding is enough; do not wound where hurting is enough; do not maim where wounding is enough; and kill not where maiming is enough; the greatest warrior is he who does not need to kill.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

3. “This you have to understand. There’s only one way to hurt a man who’s lost everything. Give him back something broken.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

4. “Stone and sea are deep in life Two unalterable symbols of the world Permanence at rest And permanence in motion Participants in the power that remains.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

5. “I may not yet be as old as dirt, but dirt and I are starting to have an awful lot in common.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

6. “We need metaphors of magic and monsters in order to understand the human condition.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

7. “The heart cherishes secrets not worth the telling.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

8. “Joy is in the ears that hear.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

9. “It is the responsibility of the living to make meaningful the sacrifices of the dead.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

10. “Futility is the defining characteristic of life.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

11. “But we will trust you nonetheless. You are bitter, and bitterness is a sign of concern. I trust that.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

12. “However you look at it, in these books “power” tends to be an expression of the essential nature of the person or being whose power it is. On those occasions when we’ve seen Lord Foul act directly, he seems to exert the withering force of pure scorn. IMHO, that’s pretty intense.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

13. “Attempts must be made, even when there can be no hope. The alternative is despair.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

14. “Despair and bitterness are not the only songs in the world.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

15. “It is wrong to ask for more than you give freely. In this way, we come to resemble what we hate.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

16. “When you’ve tried all the salves in the world and they don’t work, you start thinking about fire.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

17. “But my arts are also pure, as a circle is pure, and in a flawed world purity cannot endure.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

18. “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

19. “Any belief that puts itself beyond doubt nurtures its own collapse.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

20. “Misliking the Harrow as I do, I would find no small joy in thwarting him. Have I not admitted that I, too, am prone to greed? But here I personify the united will of the Insequent. Any deviation from that resolve will breach the sacred prohibition which enables the Insequent to endure and prosper. Answering you, I will bring down my own destruction and accomplish only sorrow.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

21. “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

22. “He who waits for the sword to fall upon his neck will surely lose his head.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

23. “Everything dies, from the smallest blade of grass to the biggest galaxy.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

24. “One word more, a final caution: Do not forget whom to fear at the last. I have had to be content with killing and torment; but now my plans are laid, and I have begun. I shall not rest until I have eradicated hope from the Earth. Think on that, and be dismayed!”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

25. “Be true, unbeliever.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

26. “We didn’t make the world. All we have to do is live in it.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

27. “I respect my limitations, but I don’t use them as an excuse.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

28. “For convenience, history is often viewed as a conflict between the instinct for order and the impulse toward chaos. Both are necessary: both are manifestations of the need to survive. Without order, nothing exists: without chaos, nothing grows. And yet the struggle between them sheds more blood than any other war.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

29. “That is Lord Foul’s way in all things – to force his foes to become that which they most hate, and to destroy that which they most love.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

30. “I have no special virtue to make me resent him. One must have strength in order to judge the weakness of others. I am not so mighty.” This.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

31. “The purpose of life, Cirrus Kindwind had once assured him, is to choose, and to act upon the choice.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

32. “What good are friends who treat you just like your enemies do?”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

33. “I had no intention of pursuing either the characters or the setting further.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

34. “Part of him wanted to weep... but his purpose was rigid within him. He felt he could not bend to gentleness without breaking.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

35. “Are you a storyteller, Thomas Covenant?” Absently he replied, “I was, once.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

36. “And you require no answers”, Foamfollower was laughing in his gladness, “You are sufficient to every question”.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

37. “On the whole, she reflected with a loopy clarity while pain clanged back and forth in her head and the guard held her upright, she liked being rescued. It was better than not being rescued. Definitely.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

38. “I can’t spend my whole life just sitting on my hands and wondering when I’m going to fade. I can’t. That’s worse than doing something wrong. Isn’t it?”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

39. “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

40. “Soon Covenant was lost again; the complexities of the.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

41. “Whatever the explanation, it’s perfectly obvious that our educational system has nothing to do with education: it’s a babysitting service designed to replicate the worst qualities of the parents.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

42. “Dark trees leaped across his vision like aghast dancers in the nacreous light.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

43. “He had no idea where he was headed, but he knew he had to go. On each breath that panted through his locked teeth, he whispered hate as if it were a question.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

44. “In your present state, Chosen, Desecration lies ahead of you. It does not crowd at your back.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

45. “His gaze turned cold as he faced her. ‘Sure, she’s attractive. A stone wall would be attractive if it looked like that. It’s her attitude I don’t like. There’s more to love than just getting your itches scratched.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

46. “You did not cause his despair. Had you treated him with distrust, you would have achieved nothing but the confirmation of his distress. Distrust – vindicates itself.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

47. “But he could not call the doctors at the leprosarium. They would return him to Louisiana. They would treat him and train him and counsel him. They would put him back into life as if his illness were all that mattered, as if wisdom were only skin deep, as if grief and remorse and horror were nothing but illusions, tricks done with mirrors, irrelevant to chrome and porcelain and clean, white, stiff hospital sheets and fluorescent lights.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

48. “Where do you get dreams like this?”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

49. “When inadequate men assumed huge burdens, the outcome could only serve Despite.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson

50. “Pardon me that I have feared for you. Fear is born in doubt, and you have not merited my doubt.”

— Stephen R. Donaldson