LeGuin

Two quotes from The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. LeGuin:

The Earth is beautiful, and bright, and kindly, but that is not all. The Earth is also terrible, and dark, and cruel. The rabbit shrieks dying in the green meadows. The mountains clench their great hands full of hidden fire. There are sharks in the sea; and there is cruelty in men's eyes. And where men worship these things and abase themselves before them, there evil breeds.

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 upwards towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.