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 our loss and fear we craved the acts of religion, the ceremonies that allow us to admit our helplessness, our dependence on the great forces we do not understand.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the human desire for connection to something greater during times of loss and fear.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote emphasizes how in moments of vulnerability, such as during loss and fear, people often turn to religious practices and rituals. These ceremonies serve as a way for individuals to acknowledge their own helplessness and recognize their dependence on larger, often incomprehensible forces that govern existence, promoting a sense of community and support in shared experiences.
Themes
ReligionLossFearCeremoniesHelplessnessDependence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the role of religion in coping with grief during a community meeting.
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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