You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do …
from A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin
Out of Babel Books 
That’s fascinating.
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There is something similar to this in C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra.
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Love Ursula Le Guin! And a thought-provoking quote from her. A friend of mine was her neighbor for years in Northwest Portland, and on a visit, he saw her in her front yard and introduced us. A good memory.
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You met her??? Wow, that is wonderful. I was sad when she died partly because I missed my chance to meet her.
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I lived in the days when novelists also thought that children could grow up and value adulthood, not pursuing this perpetual childishness.
Back when authors respected what we could be, not simply what we were.
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