Your greatest attribute, that which allows you to accomplish most in life and the most treasured aspect of your being will often be the source of your greatest suffering.

We are only different because there exists something to be different from, and it is this difference that bonds us.

Your greatest attribute, that which allows you to accomplish most in life and the most treasured aspect of your being will also be the source of your greatest suffering.

As a culture we tend to feel great pride towards our strengths, and shame for our weaknesses. It is time we take notice that these are two pieces of the same whole.

On the blank leaf glued to the inner back cover I drew the double curve within the circle, and blacked the yin half of the symbol, then pushed it back to my companion. 'Do you know that sign?'

He looked at it a long time with a strange look, but he said, 'No.'

'It's found on Earth, and on Hain-Davenant, and on Chiffewar. It is yin and yang. Light is the left hand of darkness... how did it go? Light, dark. Fear, courage. Cold, warmth. Female, male. It is yourself, Therem. Both and one. A shadow on snow.'

All being, it seemed, was built on opposites, on division. Man or woman, vagabond or citizen, lover or thinker — no breath could both be in and out, none could be man and wife, free and yet orderly, knowing the urge of life and the joy of intellect. Always the one paid for the other, though each was equally precious and essential.