“You’re truly free for the first time. What could be more difficult than that?”

— Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories (1995), "The Book of Martha"

About Octavia E. Butler

1947 – 2006

American science fiction author known for 'Parable of the Sower' and 'Kindred', and the Earthseed philosophy at the centre of her novels.

“All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is Change.”

“I realize I don’t know very much. None of us knows very much. But we can all learn more. Then we can teach one another.”

“Freedom is dangerous, Cory, but it’s precious, too. You can’t just throw it away or let it slip away.”

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”