It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Civilized Man says: I am Self, I am Master, all the rest is other--outside, below, underneath, subservient. I own, I use, I explore, I exploit, I control. What I do is what matters. What I want is what matter is for. I am that I am, and the rest is women & wilderness, to be used as I see fit.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques a self-centered worldview that prioritizes personal dominance over the surrounding world, particularly women and nature.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote offers a powerful commentary on the attitude of entitlement that often characterizes civilized society, where the self is placed above all else. It highlights a dangerous mindset that values control and exploitation of others and nature, illustrating a profound disconnect from the interconnectedness of existence. It serves as a reminder to examine our values and relationships with those around us, challenging the notion that the individual is separate from the world and subjects within it.
Themes
SelfControlExploitationInterconnectednessDominationNatureSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about environmental ethics, this quote can be used to illustrate the consequences of exploitation.
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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