It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
In so far as one denies what is, one is possessed by what is not, the compulsions, the fantasies, the terrors that flock to fill the void.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Denying reality leads to being controlled by fears and illusions.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote speaks to the importance of accepting reality as it is. When individuals deny or reject what exists, they create an emptiness within themselves that is often filled with fears, fantasies, and compulsions—essentially becoming slaves to their own illusions instead of facing the truth that could lead to personal freedom and understanding.
Themes
RealityIllusionFearAcceptanceTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about facing fears and mental health.
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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