It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. “Do they expect students not to be anarchists?” he said. “What else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
Interpretation
What this quote means
Young people often rebel against authority, which is a natural reaction when they feel marginalized.
In this quote, Ursula K. Le Guin highlights the inherent rebelliousness of youth, particularly in response to perceived injustices from those in power. The laughter in the face of upset administrators implies a critique of the expectation for students to conform, suggesting that it is natural for the young, who often feel at the bottom of societal hierarchies, to challenge and seek to reorganize the existing order from their position.
Themes
YouthRebellionAnarchistsOrganizationChange
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of youth activism.
More from Ursula K. Le Guin
All quotes →In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little... But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientific discourse announces itself as the voice of reason, it is playing God, and should be spanked and stood in the corner.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
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