The Left Hand of Darkness

"To oppose something is to maintain it"

"I'll make you my kemmering"

"He was not a man, therefore he could not be trusted with any position of responsibility"

"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; and you really are not sure that there is going to be a future at all, are you?"

"You cannot trust a man who will not trust you"

"We are the same people. The difference is only in the rut"

"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty"

"A man wants his virility regarded, a woman wants her femininity appreciated, but first and foremost every human being wants to be treated as an individual"

"The radio brought hope and suspicion in equal measure"

"The Ekumen is a dream that may never be realized"

"I came as an observer and became a participant"

"Words mean different things on different worlds"

"The journey across the ice is a journey into the self"

"We are all exiles in foreign lands"

"Loyalty to a person transcends loyalty to a nation"

"A promise made in the dark carries weight in the light"

"I learned that fear and courage are siblings"

"The radio connects us across vast distances, yet understanding remains distant"

"Betrayal and loyalty are separated by a thin line"

"The mines of Orgoreyn are built on suffering"

"I am a person, not a representative"

"The Ekumen seeks knowledge, not domination"

"A shifgrethor violation cannot be ignored without shame"

"The kemmer drives are the engine of Gethenian society"

"I came to learn your ways, but I learned myself instead"

"Gethenian minds work differently; they do not leap to conclusions"

"Trust is built in silence, not in speech"

"A man who chooses not to act has already chosen his fate"

"The shifgrethor game is how we speak without words"

"Karhide and Orgoreyn, those two great nations, they were not so different after all"