"If women had power, what would men be but women who can't bear children? And what would women be but men who can?" "Hah!" went Tenar; and presently,… - Ursula K. Le Guin

If women had power what would men be but women who can't bear children? And what would women be but men who can?

If women had power, what would men be but women who can't bear children? And what would women be but men who can?...I mean, men give her [a queen] power. They let her use their power. But it isn't hers, is it? It isn't because she's a woman that she's powerful, but despite it.

Living, being in the world, was a much greater and stranger thing than she had ever dreamed.

They had learned how to listen for the sense of the meeting, not the voice of the loudest. They had learned that they must judge each time whether obedience was necessary and right, or misplaced and wrong. They had learned that the act of violence is the act of weakness, and that the spirit’s strength lies in holding fast to the truth.

No, I don't mean love, when I say patriotism. I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression.