Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.
-- n/a

Importance: This quote, which is from Ursula K. Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan, is one of three epigraphs in front of the novel. It fits a significant theme that runs throughout the novel, namely, that it is easy to forget that freedom is not always a given; and, in the case of the totalitarian state of Gilead, it must be fought for in a way that requires great sacrifice.

We were custodians of an invaluable treasure that existed, unseen, inside us; we were precious flowers that had to be kept safely inside glass houses, or...
-- Agnes (I)