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 that moment Ged understood the singing of the bird, and the language of the water falling in the basin of the fountain, and the shape of the clouds, and the beginning and end of the wind that stirred the leaves; it seemed to him that he himself was a word spoken by the sunlight.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects a profound connection between nature and self-awareness.
In this quote, Ged experiences a moment of deep understanding and unity with the natural world around him. He perceives the singing of birds, the falling water, and the clouds as components of a greater language that speaks to his very existence. This moment of enlightenment reveals to him that he is not just an observer of the world, but an integral part of it, suggesting that everything in nature is interconnected and that our identity is intertwined with the essence of the universe.
Themes
NatureUnderstandingConnectionIdentitySelf-Awareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of environmental conservation.
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.
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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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