It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
If civilization has an opposite, it is war.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Civilization and war are opposing forces in human society.
In this quote, Ursula K. Le Guin asserts that war is the antithesis of civilization, highlighting the contrast between the structured, peaceful, and progress-oriented nature of civilization and the chaos, destruction, and regression brought about by war. This dichotomy prompts reflection on the fundamental values of society and the ways in which conflict undermines human advancement.
Themes
CivilizationWarOppositePeaceConflict
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the value of peace in promoting a civilized society.
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
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
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
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Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.
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You in the West have been sold the idea that the only options in the Arab world are between authoritarian regimes and Islamic jihadists. That's obviously bogus.
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