He was one whose power was akin to, and as strong as, the Old Powers of the earth; one who talked with dragons, and held off earthquakes with his wor… - Ursula K. Le Guin

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

"What's wrong with men?" Tenar inquired cautiously.
As cautiously, lowering her voice, Moss replied, "I don't know, my dearie. I've thought on it. Often I've thought on it. The best I can say it is like this. A man's in his skin, see, like a nut in its shell." She held up her long, bent, wet fingers as if holding a walnut. "It's hard and strong, that shell, and it's all full of him. Full of grand man-meat, man-self. And that's all. That's all there is. It's all him and nothing else, inside."

I thought, shivering, that there are things that outweigh comfort, unless one is an old woman or a cat.

Suffering is dysfunctional, except as a bodily warning against danger. Psychologically and socially it’s merely destructive.