It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
To learn a belief without the belief is to sing a song without the tune.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding a belief requires genuine belief; otherwise, it lacks depth.
Ursula K. Le Guin suggests that merely learning about a belief without truly believing in it is as futile as trying to sing a song without understanding its melody. The essence and richness of beliefs come from the commitment and passion we invest in them, much like the emotion that comes alive through the music of a song.
Themes
BeliefLearningEducationUnderstandingCommitment
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on philosophy, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of sincerity in belief.
More from Ursula K. Le Guin
All quotes βIn 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
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. βDo they expect students not to be anarchists?β he said. βWhat else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
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