"In Gorean mythology, it is said that there was once a war between men and women and that the women lost, and the the Priest-Kings, not wishing the women to be killed, made them beautiful, but as the price of this gift decreed that they, and their daughters, to the end of time, would be the slaves of men."

-Dancer of Gor

I nodded,. Enmeshed in legalities, negativities and socialized expectations, it was difficult to relate as biological human beings. But the slave girl, standing outside the protections of such devices, stands before her master as an exposed, raw human female, without rights, his to do with as he pleases. Similarly the master, owing the slave nothing, and knowing that she is completely his, his very property, may relate to her freely in the order of nature. In his treatment of her, he is untrammeled by either conscience or law, and this she knows, and loves, and accordingly hastens to obey and be pleasing. She knows that she is owned, and that he is her unqualified maaster. The order of nature and the obdurate and thematic equations of dominance and submission, denided through they might be, and even if hysterically repudiated, will continue to lurk in the microstructures of every cell in the human body. The master/slave relationship is the institutionalization of dominance and submission. It is, under the enhancements of civilization, the institutionalization of the primitive biological relationship of the human male and female, he the master, she the slave. How lonely is the woman who has not yet found her master.

-Rogue of Gor



"He is Master and I am slave. He is owner and I am owned. He is to be pleased and I am to please. Why is this? Because he is Master and I am slave."

-Explorers of Gor



'The status of being a public slave tends to be an ambiguous one. What is a girl to do, how is she to act, to whom is she to relate? In such a status she is an impersonal property, as of a state, clan or tribe. No particular master is likely to have any special concern for her, nor can she, as such a slave, ameliorate or improve her condition, or even secure, to some extent, her possibilities of survival, by becoming, invirture of deep, sweet, delicate, intimate and exquisite relationships, so fulfilling to both the woman and the man, a prized possession of her owner, a treasure to her master.'

-Blood Brother of Gor



"The man who has owned a woman or women, knows of what I speak. Perhaps even those who have never owned a woman can sense, dimly, what it might be like. I know of no pleasure comparable to the pleasure of owning a woman, fully. It is indescribably delicious; it is glorious; it fills one with joy and power; it exalts and fulfills the blood. It teaches a male, in the thunderous currency of intellect and emotion, what is the true meaning of manhood. Compared to it the gratifications of pretense and denial, the insistence on subverting one's blood and virility in the name of a false manhood conditioned by a demented, antibiological society, are pallid indeed. Let those who can climb mountains climb them; let those who cannot climb them console themselves with denying their existence."

-Rogue of Gor



"It is said, in a Gorean proverb, that a man, in his heart, desires freedom, and that a woman, in her belly, yearns for love. The collar, in its way, answers both needs. The man is most free, owning the slave. He may do what he wishes with her. The woman, on the other hand, being owned, is institutionally and helplessly subject, in her status as slave, to the submissions of love. "

-Slave Girl of Gor



"Her face was extremely sensitive, and feminine. It was a face on which emotion could be easily read. Her lip was swift to tremble, her eyes swift to moisten, filling with bright tears. Her feelings were easily hurt, a valuable property in a slave girl. Too, she could not control her feelings, another excellent property in a slave girl. Her feelings, vulnerable, deep, exploitable, in her expressions and on her face, betrayed her, exposing her to men, and their amusement, as helplessly as her stripped beauty. They made her more easily controlled, more a slave. I had once seen her handwriting. It, too, was extremely feminine. I watched her dance. Too, in her belly, perhaps most important of all, burned slave fire. She would do quite well. She would bring a high price. Only a rich man, I speculated, would be able to afford her."

-Tribesmen of Gor



"Slavery has many effects on a woman," he said, "It softens her, it enhances her beauty, it give her a profound sense of herself, it fulfills her, it increases, considerably, her sexual responsiveness, it increases a thousandfold her capacities to love, but one effect it does not have, it does not reduce her intelligence."

-Witness of Gor



"Indeed, I suspected that there would always be more to learn about service and love, that such things were fathomless and limitless, and, thus, in a sense, the notion of being "fully trained," or knowing all there was to know, was in actuality less of a practical goal than a lovely ideal, one which might perhaps be approached ever more closely, but would never be, and perhaps should never be, fully attained. Let the girl revel in her growth, and not fear that one day there will be no more to learn, nowhere else to go. There are no summits on the heights of love."

-Dancer of Gor



"Soon, most desire with all their being, in joy and gratitude, to make their masters happy. It is no wonder they are popular as slaves, and that some bring high prices. They soon find a fulfillment in love and service, and submission, which they would never have believed possible on Earth. Their place in society, as slave, is understood, accepted, and approved, even celebrated. They are prized, and relished. They become radiant, and zealous, and passionate, hot, devoted and dutiful. They set themselves to win the love of their master, and not unoften they succeed. Many then become the love slaves of love masters. They are kept as slaves, of course, for they are slaves; too, of course, as slaves, they are kept under perfect discipline. She, as other slaves, would not want it any other way. How could she, or any other slave, respect a master too weak to enforce discipline, too weak to get the whole slave from her? They are radiant. They are joyous in their collars."

-Tribesman of Gor



"The second reason for the bliss of many slave girls, that sequent upon the appropriateness of bondage for the beautiful woman itself, her female joy in being made to be true to herself, slave, was that, given the flesh transactions in a given city, sooner or later, masters tended to find girls who were, from their point of view, superb slaves, and girls tended to find men who were, from their point of view, marvels as masters. It is a beautiful moment when the woman realizes that the man who owns her is her love master, and the man realizes that the girl he bought, looking up at him, tears in her eyes, is his love slave.

Then the only danger is that he will weaken. One must be strong with a love slave. If one truly loves her, he will be that strong. The slavery in which a love slave is kept is an unusually deep slavery. She must serve him with a perfection which would stun and startle other girls; if she should fail in any way, even in so small a way that the lapse would be overlooked in the case of another wench, or bring perhaps a mild word of reprimand, she is likely to be tied at the slave ring and whipped; there is a good reason for this; she is, you see, a love slave; no woman can be more in a man's power; and with no woman must he be stronger.

Too, of course, if a relationship should weaken, or not prove enduringly satisfactory, the girl is simply put in cuffs and taken to a market.

The relationship which does not prove satisfactory is soon terminated. This termination is completely in the power of the master."

-Beasts of Gor



"It is a common property of human beings," I said, "that they, for better or for worse, do not pay much attention to the thoughts and feelings of others. Thus, it would not be surprising if most men did not pay much attention to the thoughts and feelings of women. If it is any consolation, they do not pay much attention to the thoughts and feelings of other men either. Similar remarks, of course, hold for women. Many women, for example, are excellent in not listening to others. No one sex has a monopoly on dogmatism." I looked at her. "If you are interested in this sort of thing from the Gorean viewpoint," I said, "free men and women are usually attentive to the thoughts and feelings of one another. Not only are they free, but they may even share a Home Stone. Free women, in being free, command attention when they speak. It is their due. The case with slaves, such as you, my dear, is of course much different. The difference, however, is that respect and attention is not due to you, that it need not be accorded to you. You are slave. In actual practice, of course, masters tend to pay a great deal of attention to the thoughts and feelings of their lovely slaves. It is rewarding and delicious to do so. How wonderful it is to know another human being so intimately, especially one one owns. There are no secrets between masters and slaves. Her deepest thoughts and desires, as well as her most trivial fancies and observations, are open to him and, because he owns her, of great interest to him. A man is much more likely to be intensely fond of a girl he owns than of a free individual toward whom he stands in a mere contractual relationship. The latter he does not own; the former he does. The owned girl is a valuable; she is precious; this makes her much different from a business partner. For what it is worth, the most intimate and deepest loves I have known have been between masters and their slaves, that between the love master and their love slave."

-Explorers of Gor



"What counts ultimately, in my opinion, is not the cost of the merchandise, but its value, its quality; it is not what one pays that is ultimately important, but what gets for one's money. One day he considers himself, looking down at the slave at his feet; it is he whom she struggles so hard to please, as a slave must; it is he in whose complete power she finds herself; it is he whom she must serve so humbly, and who is so strict with her; it is he who is her master; he looks down into her eyes; he sees that she, looking up at him, unable to help herself, has become his love slave. He smiles. He fingers his whip. He wonders if perhaps he is her love master. She bends down, kissing his feet. He knows he must guard against weakness. He must never forget the whip. She understands the whip. All slaves do. He watches her, her hair about his feet, and feels her lips and tongue. The sensations are not unpleasant. If he does not find the relationship satisfactory, of course, he may always sell her."

-Mercenaries of Gor



"We do not choose our Masters nor is it up to us, whether or not we will please them, or to what degree. We must strive be perfection all ways, for anyone. That is part of what is to be a slave. In reconciling myself to bondage I had, also, to reconcile myself to this condition. It is a part of bondage. It is something which the slave must accept. Without it there can be no true slavery. I had accepted this condition, at least theoretically, verbally acknowledging its incumbency on me, in my training. Somehow, interestingly, this acceptance, too, seemed liberating to me. It made my bondage much more real to me. Too, interestingly, in its way, it also made it seem much more precious to me."

-Dancer of Gor



"The most fundamental property prized by Goreans in women, I suppose, though little is said about it, is her need for love, and her capacity for love. How much does she need love? And how deep and loving is she? That is the kind of woman a man wants, ultimately, one who is helplessly and totally love's captive, in his collar."

-Mercenaries of Gor



"You sing the joys of a love slave, surely," I said, "not the woes of a woman who must crawl beneath the whip of a hated master."
"Do you not think a love slave crawls fearfully beneath the whip of her master?" she asked.
"The love slave is still a slave, you see," I said, "and perhaps more a slave than any other."
"Yes," whispered the woman.
"She is held in her bondage by the strongest of all bonds," I said, "that of love."
"Yes," she said.
"It is stronger than the chain on your neck," I said.
"I know," she said.
"It must men be very strong," laughed the woman who held her chain. She gave it a tug, jerking it against the side of the woman's neck.
"It is," I said.
"They give me to anyone here," said the woman. "Some are hideous, some smell, in the fetid breath of some I almost choke and die, and yet I must serve them, unquestioningly, although a free woman, according to whatever their dictates and whims."
I regarded the woman.
"I want a private master," she said. "I want my own master."
"It is a natural desire on the part of a female," I said.

-Mercenaries of Gor



"The correct treatment of a girl does not always preclude courtesy and gentleness no more than it always involves them. There is a time for courtesy and gentleness, and a time for harshness. The master must remember that he owns the girl; if he keeps this in mind he will generally treat her correctly. He must be strong, and he must be capable of administering discipline if she is not pleasing. Sex in a woman, as in a man, is not only richly biological but psychological as well, and the words suggest a distinction which is somewhat misleading. We are psycho-physical organisms, or better perhaps, thinking, feeling organisms. Part of the correct treatment of a woman is treating her as you wish; she has genetic dispositions for submission bred into every cell of her body, a function of both natural and sexual selection. Accordingly, what might seem brutal or quick to a man can be taken by a woman in the dimensions of her sentience as irrefutable evidence of his domination of her, her being owned by him, which thrills her to the core for it touches the ancient biological meaning of her womanhood. He simply uses her for his pleasure, because he wished to do so. He is her master."

-Beasts of Gor



"Kindness is acceptable, in my opinion, provided the girl knows that she is kept within the strictest of disciplines. I want no more from a girl than everything. If I own her, then, like any other Gorean master, I will simply see that I get it. Beyond that, I may be kind to her or not, as I see fit. Sometimes, of course, kindness is cruelty, and a certain harshness may be kind. One must know the girl. The truly kind master, I think, is he who treats the girl in such a way that she is forced to fulfill her needs in their radical depth and diversity; he gives her no choice but to be a woman, in the full meaning of this word, which is the only thing that can truly, ultimately, make her happy. If a woman were a man perhaps the way to make her happy would be to treat her like a man. If she is not a man perhaps treating her like a man is not the way to make her happy."

-Beasts of Gor



"The feelings of the young warrior toward his slave were profoundly ambivalent. She was not only the sort of female that he found irresistibly, excruciatingly attractive, as I had known before I had shown her to him the first time, but, to my surprise and delight, there seemed to be a special mystery or magic, or chemistry, between them. Each was a dream come true for the other. She had been, it seems, in some profound genetic sense, born for his chains. They fitted together, like a lock and its key. She loved him profoundly, helplessly, and from the first time she had seen him. He, too, had been smitten. Then he had discovered that she was from Cos, that ubarate which was his hated foe, at the hands of whose mercenary and regular forces he had seen his city destroyed. It was no wonder that in rage he had vowed to make the lovely slave stand proxy for Cos, that he might then vent upon her his fury, and his hatred, for Cos, and all things Cosian. And so it was that he had determined to reduce and humiliate her, and make her suffer, but with each cuffing, with each command, with each kick, with each blow of the whip, she became only the more his, and the more loving. I had know for a long time, even as long ago as the inn of the Crooked Tarn, on the Vosk Road, before the fall of Ar’s Station, that she had profound slave needs, but I had never suspected their depth until I had seen her in a camp outside Brundisium, kneeling before Marcus, looking up at him, unbelievingly. She had known then that she was his, and in perfection. I had no doubt they fitted together, in the order of nature, in the most intimate, beautiful and fulfilling relationship possible between a man and a woman, that of love master and love slave."

-Magicians of Gor



"For the Passion Slave, she said, "it is the belled ankle, perfume, the whip and the furs of love."
"Perhaps he was kind to her," I suggested again, "--when others were not."
"I don't understand." said Vika.
"Perhaps," I said, "he cared for her and spoke to her and was gentle --and loved her."

-Priest-Kings of Gor



'I can walk with my head down, as a slave,' said Tarna.
'Most female slaves,' said Hassan, 'walk very proudly. They are proud of their slavery, and their mastery by men. They have learned their womanhood. It has been taught to them. In their way, though imbonded, totally, I suppose they are the truest and freest of women. They are closest, perhaps, to the essentials of the female, those of subservience to the masculine will, obedience, service and pleasure. In being most themselves, utter slave, they are most free. This is paradoxical, to be sure. Most girls, verbally will object to slavery, but this half-hearted, pouting, ineffectual rhetoric is belied by the joy of their behavior. No girl who has not been a slave can understand the joy of it, the profoundity and freedom. The objections of girls to slavery, I have noted are usually not objections to the institution which, in the sweet heat of their bodies, they love dearly, and fear only to lose, but to a given master. Given the proper master they are quite content. In the proper collar a woman is serene, and joyful.'
'Are slave girls truly proud?' asked Tarna.
'Most,' said Hassan. 'You may think only of girls you have dominated, or seraglio mistresses, presiding over male weaklings. But have you seen girls, truly, before men?'
'In a cafe, once,' she said, 'I saw a girl dance before men. She was scandalous! And the girls, too, who served in the cafe! Shameful! Scandalous!'
'Speak with care,' said Hassan, 'Girl, for someday you, too, may so dance and serve.'
Tarna turned white.
'Did the girls seem proud?' asked Hassan.
'Yes,' said Tarna sullenly. 'But why should they have been proud?'
'They were proud of their bodies, their feelings, their desirability,' said Hassan, 'and proud, too, of their masters, who had the will and power to put them in a collar and keep then there, because it pleased him to do so.'
'How strong such men must be,' whispered Tarna.
'Too,' said Hassan, 'undeniable females, secure in their sexuality, it was difficult not for them to be proud. Too, joy can make girls proud.'
'But why, why,' wept Tarna, 'should they be proud?'
Hassan shrugged. 'Because they knew themselves to be the most perfect and profound of women,' he said. 'That is why they are proud.' Hassan laughed. 'Sometimes,' he said, 'girls grow so proud it is necessary to whip them, to remind them that they are only slaves.'
'I can walk proudly,' said Tarna. 'Lead me through the halls.' She rose to her feet, and stood before us.
'There is a difference' laughed Hassan, 'between the pride of a free woman and the pride of the slave girl. The pride of a free woman is the pride of a woman who feels herself to be the equal of a man. The pride of the slave girl is the pride of the girl who knows that no other woman is the equal of herself.'
Tarna suddenly shuddered, inadvertently, with pleasure. I could see that this insight had thrilled her to the quick.
'You are no longer competing with men,' said Hassan. 'You are now something different.'

-Tribesmen of Gor



“…‘But I wonder if a man, ever, will truly understand what a woman’s collar can mean to her. I wonder if he, ever, truly, will be able to fathom the nature and depth of the emotions of the woman who kneels at his feet.’
‘It is hard to be a man’, I said, ‘until one stands in a relation to a woman. And, I suppose, it is hard to be a woman until one stands in a relation to a man.’
‘What relation’, she asked, ‘Master?’
‘That of the natural order of nature’, I said.
‘Yes, Master’, she said.
I looked at her. ‘I cannot know well the nature of your feelings’, I said, ‘but I know, and well, that women are deep as well as beautiful.’
‘We are so different from you’, she said. ‘I fear you will never understand us.’
‘It is doubtless easier to put you on your knees and push the whip to your teeth than it is to understand you’, I said.
‘The man who truly understands us’, she laughed, ‘is the first to put us on our knees and make us kiss the whip’."

-Explorers of Gor

"'You responded well to the taking,' I said. 'Perhaps it is fitting for you.'
'You do not respect me,' she said.
'You do not want to be respected,' I said. 'You want to be cherished, treasured, handled, abused, mastered, owned, subdued, forced to serve and love.'
She was silent."

-Renegades of Gor

"Do not concern yourself in this matter, with the values of others, and particularly of men, or of those who desire to be imitative of men, but seek to find your own female values, the deepest and most feminine values in your being, those of your deepest self. Try to find out who you are, in the depths of your most complete femaleness, and then dare to be what, truely, you are."

-Mercenaries of Gor

"The Gorean woman, for reasons that are not altogether clear to me, considering the culture, rejoices in being a woman. She is often an exciting, magnificent, glorious creature, outspoken, talkative, vital, active, spirited. On the whole I find her more joyful than many of her earth-inhabiting sisters who, theoretically at least, enjoy a more lofty status, although it is surely true that on my old world I have met several women with something of the Gorean zest for acknowledging the radiant truth of their sex, the gifts of joy, grace and beauty, tenderness, and fathoms of love that we poor men, I suspect, may sometimes and tragically fail to understand, to comprehend."

-Priest-Kings of Gor

"As she serves him again and again throughout the long feast, she steals glances at him, and sees that he is even more handsome than she had thought. Of his courage and strength she had already had ample evidence. As he eats and drinks with gusto on this occasion of his triumph, she regards him furtively, with a strange mixture of fear and pleasure. 'Only such a man,' she tells herself, 'could tame me.'"

-Outlaw of Gor

"She stood very still, facing the couch, at its foot. She was a bond-maid. She was property. She was owned. "Force me," she whispered. Bond-maids know they are chattel, and relish being treated as such. Deep in the belly, too, of every female is a desire, more ancient than the caves, to be forced to yield to the ruthless domination of a magnificent , uncompromising male, a master; deep with in them they all wish to submit, vulnerably and completely, nude, to such a beast.

-Marauders of Gor

Quotes referenced on this site are from the series of books, Chronicles of Counter Earth, of the planet Gor.
-authored by John Norman