Obi Wan Quotes

True it is,/ That these are not the droids for which thou search'st. -Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi

This is Obi-Wan Kenobi: A phenomenal pilot who doesn’t like to fly. A devastating warrior who’d rather not fight. A negotiator without peer who frankly prefers to sit alone in a quiet cave and meditate.

Obi-Wan Kenobi once said ‘your eyes can deceive you, don’t trust them.’ It seems to be getting harder. Distinguishing reality from the illusions people make for us, or the ones we make for ourselves. I don’t know, maybe that’s part of the plan, to make me think I’m crazy…it’s working.

O help/ Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, help. Thou art/ Mine only hope. -Leia Organa

This was not Sith against Jedi. This was not light against dark or good against evil; it had nothing to do with duty or philosophy, religion or morals. It was Anakin against Obi-Wan. Personally. Just the two of them and the damage they had done to each other

Who is more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?

Contemplation of death brought only one slight sting of regret, and more than a bit of puzzlement. Until this very moment, he had never realized he’d always expected, for no discernible reason— That when he died, Anakin would be with him.

I never claimed to be the Chosen One. That was Qui-Gon. Even the Council doesn’t believe it anymore, so why should you?” "Because I think you believe it,” Obi-Wan said calmly. “I think you know in your heart that you’re meant for something extraordinary.” “And you, Master. What does your heart tell you you’re meant for?” “Infinite sadness,” Obi-Wan said, even while smiling.

I am called a great swordsman because I invented a lethal style; but who is greater, the creator of a killing form—or the master of the classic form?" "I'm very flattered that you would consider me a master but really—" "Not a master. The master.

You're our best hope." "If you call me Obi-Wan I'm going to kick you." He grinned. "Hot. say Obi-Wan again." I laughed, shoving his shoulder. "Shut up.

People are more than their worst act. And they are also more than the worst thing ever done to them.

The man he faced was everything Obi-Wan had devoted his life to destroying: Murderer. Traitor. Fallen Jedi. Lord of the Sith. NAd here, and now, despite it all... Obi-Wan still loved him

Anakin.” Obi-Wan’s voice had gone soft, and his hand was warm on Anakin’s arm. “There is no other Jedi I would rather have at my side right now. No other man.” Anakin turned, and found within Obi-Wan’s eyes a depth of feeling he had only rarely glimpsed in all their years together; and the pure uncomplicated love that rose up within him then felt like a promise from the Force itself. “I… I wouldn’t have it any other way, Master.” “I believe,” his onetime Master said with a gently humorous look of astonishment at the words coming out of his mouth, “that you should get used to calling me Obi-Wan.

They are closer than friends. Closer than brothers. Though Obi-Wan is sixteen standard years Anakin's elder, they have become men together. Neither can imagine life without the other. The war has forged their two lives into one.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, brothers-in-arms of the Jedi Order. Together, they were unstoppable.

Until the possible becomes actual, it is only a distraction. Be mindful of what is, not what might be.

All life is sacred. Even life that comes in forms that we don't understand." - Obi-Wan Kenobi

In every exchange, Obi-Wan gave ground. It was his way.

I think," Obi-Wan said carefully, "that abstractions like peace don't mean much to him. He's loyal to people, not to principles. And he expects loyalty in return. He will stop at nothing to save me, for example, because he thinks I would do the same for him." Mace and Yoda gazed at him steadily, and Obi-Wan had to lower his head. "Because," he admitted reluctantly, "he knows I would do the same for him.

You've either bat-shit insane or you've watched too many movies. This isn't Star Wars, Mandel. I'm not Luke Skywalker. My dad's not Darth Vader. And you sure as hell aren't my Obi-Wan.

You know, sort of like Obi-Wan, watching over Luke while he was growing up on Tatooine.” “You’re a bold-faced liar like Obi-Wan, too!” I shot back. “That’s for sure.” Ray’s smile vanished, and his eyes narrowed. “And you’re being a whiny little bitch, just like Luke!

Fortunately, Luke's unwavering faith in his father's innate goodness had proved to be a stronger force than the power of the dark side.

Help us, Juli-wan Kenobi, you're our only hope." For a moment, that almost, almost made Julius feel like a hero. And then he remembered. "Doesn't Obi-Wan die in that movie?

Well, listen, Obi-Wan," Philby said sarcastically. "Why don't you tell me and Luke here where to find him, and we'll make for hyperspace.

Everyone's life changes when they meet their Obi-Wan & their Yoda, or their Morpheus & their Oracle; those who help remove the veil.

You had two prerequisites.” Regin plopped down on a snowbank. “And I do believe I have Russian ex-mil contacts, and I speak the language-“ “Oh, come on! I’ve since learned that you do not by any stretch. You think Dostoyevsky is Russian for ‘How ‘s it hanging?’” She blinked up at Kaderin as she paced by. “Then how do you say it?” “I-don’t-know.” “Then how do you know it’s not Dostoyevsky? No. Really.” She blew a bubble with her gum – possibly the first to do so at this location – but it flash-froze, and she had to crunch it back to gum consistency with her molars. “Obi-Wan, I was your only hope.” (Kaderin and Regin)

Obi-Wan, staring, wished that he had the strength to rip his eyes out of his head. But even blind, he would see this forever. He would see his friend, his student, his brother, turn and kneel in front of a black-cloaked Lord of the Sith. His head rang with a silent scream.

This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

That was the difference between someone like her and someone like him: Obi-Wan Kenobi was too good for a galaxy at war.

You’re one crazy S.O.B. You stole her right from under the guy she was with,” he whispered in awe. “I can’t believe you got her to go out with you. How’d you do that?” “I paid attention to what was going on around me, which is what you need to do. Then you’ll start seeing the things you’re missing.” “I have no idea what you mean, but feel free to teach me, Master Obi-Wan.” I snorted and Cami looked at me. I smiled and she gave me a shy one back before turning toward the screen again.

Obi-Wan looked down. It would be a mercy to kill him. He was not feeling merciful

When they'd met, Anakin had been a warmhearted nine-year-old boy with an open nature. He was twelve and a half now, and the years had changed him. He had grown to be a boy who hid his heart.

On the first day of November last year, sacred to many religious calendars but especially the Celtic, I went for a walk among bare oaks and birch. Nothing much was going on. Scarlet sumac had passed and the bees were dead. The pond had slicked overnight into that shiny and deceptive glaze of delusion, first ice. It made me remember sakes and conjure a vision of myself skimming backward on one foot, the other extended; the arms become wings. Minnesota girls know that this is not a difficult maneuver if one's limber and practices even a little after school before the boys claim the rink for hockey. I think I can still do it - one thinks many foolish things when November's bright sun skips over the entrancing first freeze. A flock of sparrows reels through the air looking more like a flying net than seventy conscious birds, a black veil thrown on the wind. When one sparrow dodges, the whole net swerves, dips: one mind. Am I part of anything like that? Maybe not. The last few years of my life have been characterized by stripping away, one by one, loves and communities that sustain the soul. A young colleague, new to my English department, recently asked me who I hang around with at school. "Nobody," I had to say, feeling briefly ashamed. This solitude is one of the surprises of middle age, especially if one's youth has been rich in love and friendship and children. If you do your job right, children leave home; few communities can stand an individual's most pitiful, amateur truth telling. So the soul must stand in her own meager feathers and learn to fly - or simply take hopeful jumps into the wind. In the Christian calendar, November 1 is the Feast of All Saints, a day honoring not only those who are known and recognized as enlightened souls, but more especially the unknowns, saints who walk beside us unrecognized down the millennia. In Buddhism, we honor the bodhisattvas - saints - who refuse enlightenment and return willingly to the wheel of karma to help other beings. Similarly, in Judaism, anonymous holy men pray the world from its well-merited destruction. We never know who is walking beside us, who is our spiritual teacher. That one - who annoys you so - pretends for a day that he's the one, your personal Obi Wan Kenobi. The first of November is a splendid, subversive holiday. Imagine a hectic procession of revelers - the half-mad bag lady; a mumbling, scarred janitor whose ravaged face made the children turn away; the austere, unsmiling mother superior who seemed with great focus and clarity to do harm; a haunted music teacher, survivor of Auschwitz. I bring them before my mind's eye, these old firends of my soul, awakening to dance their day. Crazy saints; but who knows what was home in the heart? This is the feast of those who tried to take the path, so clumsily that no one knew or notice, the feast, indeed, of most of us. It's an ugly woods, I was saying to myself, padding along a trail where other walkers had broken ground before me. And then I found an extraordinary bouquet. Someone had bound an offering of dry seed pods, yew, lyme grass, red berries, and brown fern and laid it on the path: "nothing special," as Buddhists say, meaning "everything." Gathered to formality, each dry stalk proclaimed a slant, an attitude, infinite shades of neutral. All contemplative acts, silences, poems, honor the world this way. Brought together by the eye of love, a milkweed pod, a twig, allow us to see how things have been all along. A feast of being.

I waved my hand in front of my face, obi-wan style. "I am not here." Niall's mucas glands kicked into overdrive. "Eoin's dead! And his ghost is standing right there on the grass!" Donal let out a long suffering sigh. "Eoin is being a writer." Niall calmed down, becuase everyone knows writers are weird and are always doing stupid thingss.

Every person Obi-Wan ever truly loved---Anakin, Satine, Padmé, and Qui-Gon himself---came to a terrible end. Three of them died before his eyes; the other fell to a fate so bleak that death would've been a gift.

Cordé was dead. Versé was dead. Obi-Wan was dead. Master Billaba was dead. Anakin Skywalker was dead. Padmé Amidala Naberrie was dead, her dreams with her.

I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.

Bail Organa sent Leia herself to summon me. When I saw her---saw Padmé in her so strongly, and even a little of Anakin, too---I knew my exile was nearly at an end.

His agony somehow became an invisible hand, stretching out through the Force, a hand that found her, far away, alone in her apartment in the dark, a hand that felt the silken softness of her skin and the sleek coils of her hair, a hand that dissolved into a field of pure energy, of pure feeling that reached inside her— And now he felt her, really felt her in the Force, as though she could have been some kind of Jedi, too, but more than that: he felt a bond, a connection, deeper and more intimate than he’d ever had before with anyone, even Obi-Wan; for a precious eternal instant he was her … he was the beat of her heart and he was the motion of her lips and he was her soft words as though she spoke a prayer to the stars—

Through the mist, two silhouettes emerged, the glow of their blades giving off enough light to eliminate any doubt of who approached, of who could pull off something as impossible as this rescue. There stood Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, brothers-in-arms of the Jedi Order. And together, they were unstoppable.

...And partly because I wanted to give them a chance to be… better. Bigger of spirit. That rescue suggests they have it in them.” “People are more than their worst act,” Obi-Wan recited. It was something Qui-Gon had said to him many times, which at last seemed to be sinking in.

The newly created Darth Vader flexes his Force-muscle as the Emperor's enforcer to maintain order and obedience in a galaxy reeling from civil war and the destruction of the Jedi Order. To the galaxy at large, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker - the Chosen One - died on Coruscant during the siege of the Jedi Temple. And, to some extent, the was true - Anakin was dead. But from the site of Anakin Skywalker's last stand - on the molten surface of the planet Mustafa, where he sought to destroy his friend and former master, Obi-Wan Kanobi - a fearsome spectre in black has risen. Once the most powerful Knight ever known to the Jedi order he is not a disciple of the dark side, a lord of the dreaded Sith, and the avenging right hand of the galaxy's ruthless new Emperor. Seduced, deranged and destroyed by the machinations of the Dark Lord Sidious, Anakin Skywalker is dead ... and Darth Vader lives ...

As was often the case, Obi-Wan noted, Qui-Gon managed to sound very reassuring while actually saying very little.

Mmm. Lost a planet, Master Obi-Wan has. How embarrassing.

I gave them my best Obi-Wan Kanobi, a heavy, calm confidence, willing them towards the conclusion that we didn't have any droids on us.

...so, what I told you was the truth. From a certain point-of-view

They were such an odd pairing on the face of it: Obi-Wan so self-contained, Anakin so reckless. But they'd found their balance, and now they were two halves of a whole.

I may be a country girl who's never been offplanet, but even I'm aware that when a Jedi walks up to you and says, "Here, have a baby," it's not going to end well.

Obi-Wan Kenobi opened his eyes to find himself staring at what he strongly suspected was Anakin's butt. It looked like Anakin's butt—well, his pants, anyway—though it was thoroughly impossible for Obi-Wan to be certain, since he had never before had occasion to examine Anakin's butt upside down, which it currently appeared to be, nor from this rather uncomfortably close range.

Obi-Wan's young face clouded. "Some secrets are best left concealed, Master." He shook his head. "Besides, why must you always be the one to do the uncovering? You know how the Council feels about these... detours. Perhaps, just once, the uncovering should be left to someone else." Qui-Gon looked suddenly sad. "No, Obi-Wan. Secrets must be exposed when found. Detours must be taken when encountered. And if you are the one who stands at the crossroads or the place of concealment, you must never leave it to another to act in your place.

Leia had watched as Luke slowly overcame his grief for Obi-Wan Kenobi and his aunt and uncle, while learning about gunnery, ship repair, and countless other things from Han. The sarcasm and wit Han used disguised his concern from Luke, and even Leia took a while to realize that Han was looking out for her, too.

The room fell silent. I frankly didn't know what I was going to do to help Eduardo, but I had the sense that he was right- no one else could help him, and without help, all that he'd done would crumble. Plus, I like being called his only hope. I felt like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

LEIA —O help Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, help. Thou art Mine only hope. LUKE —I wonder who she is. Whoever she may be, whatever is Her cause, I shall unto her pleas respond. Not e’en were she my sister could I know A duty of more weight than I feel now. It seemeth she some dreadful trouble hath— Mayhap I should replay the message whole.

People are more than their worst act,” Obi-Wan recited. It was something Qui-Gon had said to him many times, which at last seemed to be sinking in. “At least, most people. And they are also more than the worst thing ever done to them.

Obi-Wan had given up trying to come up with any coherent thoughts. It made more sense to just yell, “AAAAAAUUUGHHHH!

Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.

Skill is the child of patience.

Don’t walk over here. Be over here.” I gave up. “You know, I can’t tell if you’re channeling Obi-Wan or Yoda more.” “Dutch, don’t make me come get you.

Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them.

Impressive, most impressive, worthy lad, Thine Obi-Wan hath taught thee well, and thou Hast master'd all thy fears. Now, go! Release Thine anger, for thy hate alone can strike Me down!

R2-D2 [aside:]         —Almost I could My metal tongue release and speak to him. This man doth show sure signs of wisdom and Experience. [To Obi-Wan:] Beep, beep, meep, beep, meep, squeak.

...you must understand that not even the Jedi know all there is to be known about the Force; no mortal mind can. We speak of the will of the Force as someone ignorant of gravity might say it is the will of a river to flow to the ocean; it is a metaphor that describes our ignorance. The simple truth - if any truth is ever simple - is that we do not truly know what the will of the Force may be. We can never know. It is so far beyond our limited understanding that we can only surrender to its mystery.

OBI-WAN Forsooth, a great disturbance in the Force Have I just felt. ’Twas like a million mouths Cried out in fear at once, and then were gone, All hush’d and quiet—silent to the last. I fear a stroke of evil hath occurr’d. But thou, good Luke, thy practice recommence.

This is Obi-Wan Kenobi: A phenomenal pilot who doesn’t like to fly. A devastating warrior who’d rather not fight. A negotiator without peer who frankly prefers to sit alone in a quiet cave and meditate.

Everything casts two shadows. The suns had determined this at the dawn of creation. Brothers, they were, until the younger sun showed his true face to the tribe. It was a sin. The elder sun attempted to kill his brother, as was only proper. But he failed. Burning, bleeding, the younger sun pursued his sibling across the sky. The wily old star fled for the hills and safety, but it was his fate never to rest again. For the younger brother had only exposed his face. The elder had exposed his failure.

You’re making a big deal out of nothing, Dad.” I point at her. “The fact that you think so is exactly what concerns me.” “The people will have no other side to be on, but mine. When I’m Queen, they’ll like it or as far as I’m concerned, they can piss the hell off.” Wow. Holy shit—wow. I gape at her. This is how Obi-Wan must’ve felt when Anakin turned to the fucking Dark Side.

But here’s my little trade secret that I put into every All Is Lost moment just for added spice, and it’s something that many hit movies have. I call it the whiff of death. I started to notice how many great movies use the All Is Lost point to kill someone. Obi Wan in Star Wars is the best example — what will Luke do now?? All Is Lost is the place where mentors go to die, presumably so their students can discover “they had it in them all along.” The mentor’s death clears the way to prove that. But what if you don’t have an Obi Wan character? What if death isn’t anywhere near your story? Doesn’t matter. At the All Is Lost moment, stick in something, anything that involves a death. It works every time. Whether it’s integral to the story or just something symbolic, hint at something dead here. It could be anything. A flower in a flower pot. A goldfish. News that a beloved aunt has passed away. It’s all the same.

You’ve been off fighting the war in the Outer Rim. You don’t know what it’s been like, dealing with all the petty squabbles and special interests and greedy, grasping fools in the Senate, and Palpatine’s constant, cynical, ruthless maneuvering for power—he carves away chunks of our freedom and bandages the wounds with tiny scraps of security. And for what? Look at this planet, Obi-Wan! We have given up so much freedom—how secure do we look?

As Obi-Wan will soon learn, the most beautiful form of mastery is the art of letting go.

Qui-Gon used to do this. He used to roam around the galaxy picking up strays.” “Like me, you mean?” said Anakin tightly. “Useless hangers-on like me?

Without trust, we have nothing. Without truth, we have nothing. We must have faith in it. And that was as much of a part of him (Obi-Wan) as his connection to the Force.

Who's the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him? Obi-Wan Kenobi

Fear is the path to the Dark Side.

I am stronger as part of the Jedi Order than I could ever be alone.

What would you think, if your own student was doing this?" "Oh, I'll never have a Padawan as bad as I am." Obi-Wan was certain of that.

Without trust, we have nothing. Without truth, we have nothing. We MUST have faith in it. (Obi-Wan Kenobi)

Master Obi-Wan would have tried to charm himself through and would invariably have ended up making as much noise as Anakin anyway.

You must know this, Obi-Wan—it is Anakin who chose to turn to the dark side. Grief did not push him there. You did not push him there. He made the choice.

Obi-Wan looked down. It would be a marcy to kill him. He was not feeling merciful

Looking at Qui-Gon's face for the last time, Obi-Wan whispered, "I choose to believe.

Don't trust your eyes, they can deceive you

Someone’s after her—” “Your antagonist, good . . .” “And she’s getting worse. She needs to figure out what’s going on.” Daniel leaned his chin on his hand and raised his eyebrows. “How about an Obi-Wan slash Gandalf slash Dumbledore slash Giles?” “Giles?” Daniel shook his head sadly. “I hate that I never managed to persuade you to watch Buffy. It’s a flaw in you, Mara.

Very bad joke,” Obi-Wan muttered. “D’you know, there are times when you and Bail Organa are uncannily alike.” Anakin kept a straight face, just. “Thank you.” “That wasn’t a compliment,” growled Obi-Wan,

She put this in my hand - " For what seemed the dozenth time this day, he found himself blinking back tears. " - and I don't even know what it is." "Precious to her, it must have been," Yoda said slowly. "Buried with her, perhaps it should be." Obi-Wan looked down at the simple, child-like symbols carved into it and felt from it in the Force soaring echoes of transcendent love, and the bleak, black despair of unendurable heartbreak.

Anakin was sixteen years old. Impatience was wired into his being. Despite Anakin's strong Force connection, it would most likely take years before he developed true inner balance. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, was supposed to have it already.

Oh, for God's sake, I thought. Why me? I mean, really. Like my life's not complicated enough. Now I have to play Obi Wan Kenobi to this kid's Anakin Skywalker? It so isn't fair. When was I ever going to get the chance to be a normal teenage girl, to do the things normal teenage girls like to do, like go to parties and hang out at the beach, and um, what else? Oh, yeah, date. A date, with the boy I actually like, would be nice. But do I get dates? Oh, no. What do I get instead? Ghosts.

Alone and connected. Aloof and hopelessly entwined. Obi-Wan had only a moment before he was wrenched back into the physical world, but it was long enough to renew his hope. "Obi-Wan," said Qui-Gon Jinn. He was sure the voice was stronger this time. "Let go.

Now Obi Wan did face him. 'Palpatine faced Mace and Agen and Kit and Saesee-four of the greatest swordsmen our order has ever produced. By Himself. Even both of us together wouldn't have a chance.' 'True,' Yoda said, 'But both of us apart, a chance we might create...

In Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Darth Vader says to Obi-Wan Kenobi, “If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.

That’s because it is cruel, Obi-Wan,” Anakin snapped. “Cruel and unfeeling and unworthy of the Jedi Order.” He was so like Qui-Gon. This was like arguing with a ghost.

The problem was that politicians wrote so many things down, and then Obi-Wan had to read them, because his master had a feeling that something was coming. Qui-Gon had a deeply annoying habit of bein correct about this sort of thing, which was one of the reasons Obi-Wan hadn't mutinied. Well, that and because he'd tried something very like mutiny once, and it hadn't gone well.

The Jedi Order that provided the entire framework for Obi-Wan’s life was consumed by betrayal and slaughter. Every step of this long, unfulfilling journey is one Obi-Wan had to take alone… and yet he never faltered. As the rest of the galaxy burned, his path remained true. It is the kind of victory that most people never recognize and yet the bedrock all goodness is built upon.

driven him insane, he’d latched onto Sharp’s offer to join his PI firm like a K-9 on a bite sleeve. For the last two months, he’d been Skywalker to Sharp’s Obi-Wan. Lance shifted position, stretching his

Thank you, for creating this vast and flexible playground. Thank you for creating one of the twentieth century's most popular myths, a gift that has brought billions of happy viewing hours at a critical time in world history, a time when perhaps, we need more than ever to blieve in honor, sacrifice, heart, and that special magic called life itself. As long as I live I will never forget The Moment when Luke Skywalker flew so desperately into the Death Star's trench, John William's score soaring magnificently, and the audience overwhelmed by Industrial Light and Magic's mind-bending inaugural. At that pulse-pounding moment, a moment when it seemed the individual human being could have no point or purpose, no meaning in a universe so vast and cybernetic, we heard Obi-Wan Kenobi whisper that we should trust our feelings. The Force flows through us. It controls us. We control it. Life creates it. It is more powerful than any Death Star. Hundreds of millions of people said yes, and sighed, and applauded, and went home or turned off their videos feeling just a little more empowered than they did before the lights went down and the Twentieth Century-Fox fanfare came up. No small feat. May the Force be with you, Mr. Lucas. And with us all. Always".

Anyone can fight, given a weapon and an enemy. Anyone can use a lightsaber, given due training or even good luck. But to stand and wait—to have so much patience and fortitude—that, Obi-Wan, is a greater achievement than you can know.

He’s very powerful in a way I could never understand,” Padmé said. “His sense of justice is extreme. There was an incident with a Tusken encampment on Tatooine when we were there.” “That was Anakin?” Sabé said. “They’re talking about that massacre on the other side of the planet.” “It was awful,” Padmé said. “I tried to talk to him about it afterward, but I didn’t get very far. And then we got the message from Obi-Wan, and then Geonosis happened, and then—” “And then you got married,” Sabé said. She tried not to sound judgmental, but it was a challenge.

Could Vader actually be Anakin Skywalker? the two men wondered. Based on Obi-Wan's account of what had occurred on Mustafar, Anakin's survival didn't seem possible. But perhaps Obi-Wan had underestimated Anakin. Perhaps Anakin's peerless strength in the Force had allowed him to survive.

Ruby understood. She wouldn't have a week ago, but now she did. You won't break. She halted, thinking. It was important that she phrase it well, that she pass on something of what she'd learned about this family of theirs. You think you have to hold it all in, and if you let any of it go, you'll shatter into tiny pieces and you won't know who you are. But it doesn't work that way. It's more like ... opening your eyes in a room you'd expected to be dark. You can see things, and it makes you feel stronger. She laughed. God I sound like Obi-wan on heroin. Jeez Rube, Caroline said, sniffling a little. My little sister has finally grown up.

Padmé insists: “There’s always a choice.” Does Anakin hear the echo of her voice decades later, when he decides to save their son from the Emperor? I like to think so. “YOU GET MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN” Here’s Leia, speaking of Han’s apparent desertion of the rebellion in A New Hope: “A man must follow his own path. No one can choose it for him.” Here’s Obi-Wan to Luke, again in A New Hope: “Then you must do what you think is right, of course.” Here are Lucas’s own words: “Life sends you down funny paths. And you get many opportunities to keep your eyes open.” He was talking about his own life, but he might as well have been talking about Star Wars and the characters who populate it.

Both C.K. and Bieber are extremely gifted performers. Both climbed to the top of their industry, and in fact, both ultimately used the Internet to get big. But somehow Bieber “made it” in one-fifteenth of the time. How did he climb so much faster than the guy Rolling Stone calls the funniest man in America—and what does this have to do with Jimmy Fallon? The answer begins with a story from Homer’s Odyssey. When the Greek adventurer Odysseus embarked for war with Troy, he entrusted his son, Telemachus, to the care of a wise old friend named Mentor. Mentor raised and coached Telemachus in his father’s absence. But it was really the goddess Athena disguised as Mentor who counseled the young man through various important situations. Through Athena’s training and wisdom, Telemachus soon became a great hero. “Mentor” helped Telemachus shorten his ladder of success. The simple answer to the Bieber question is that the young singer shot to the top of pop with the help of two music industry mentors. And not just any run-of-the-mill coach, but R& B giant Usher Raymond and rising-star manager Scooter Braun. They reached from the top of the ladder where they were and pulled Bieber up, where his talent could be recognized by a wide audience. They helped him polish his performing skills, and in four years Bieber had sold 15 million records and been named by Forbes as the third most powerful celebrity in the world. Without Raymond’s and Braun’s mentorship, Biebs would probably still be playing acoustic guitar back home in Canada. He’d be hustling on his own just like Louis C.K., begging for attention amid a throng of hopeful entertainers. Mentorship is the secret of many of the highest-profile achievers throughout history. Socrates mentored young Plato, who in turn mentored Aristotle. Aristotle mentored a boy named Alexander, who went on to conquer the known world as Alexander the Great. From The Karate Kid to Star Wars to The Matrix, adventure stories often adhere to a template in which a protagonist forsakes humble beginnings and embarks on a great quest. Before the quest heats up, however, he or she receives training from a master: Obi Wan Kenobi. Mr. Miyagi. Mickey Goldmill. Haymitch. Morpheus. Quickly, the hero is ready to face overwhelming challenges. Much more quickly than if he’d gone to light-saber school. The mentor story is so common because it seems to work—especially when the mentor is not just a teacher, but someone who’s traveled the road herself. “A master can help you accelerate things,” explains Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and career coach behind the bestseller The Success Principles. He says that, like C.K., we can spend thousands of hours practicing until we master a skill, or we can convince a world-class practitioner to guide our practice and cut the time to mastery significantly.