It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
But you must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power...It must follow knowledge, and serve need.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Change should only occur with a full understanding of its consequences.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote highlights the significance of understanding the implications of our actions, especially when it comes to change. The delicate balance of the world requires careful contemplation and knowledge before exercising the power to alter it; ignorance can lead to unintended chaos and moral dilemmas.
Themes
ChangeBalanceKnowledgePowerConsequences
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about environmental policy, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for careful consideration before making changes.
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
Similar quotes
They are so filthy and bestial that no honest man would admit one into his house for a water-closet doormat.
Charles DickensRead
We may say that on the first Good Friday afternoon was completed that great act by which light conquered darkness and goodness conquered sin. That is the wonder of our Saviour's crucifixion.
Phillips BrooksRead
It is not a question of sitting silently, it is not a question of chanting a mantra. It is a question of understanding the subtle workings of the mind. As you understand those workings of the mind a great awareness arises in you, which is not of the mind. That awareness arises in your being, in your soul, in your consciousness.
RajneeshRead
They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.
William BlakeRead
The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it lives for ever.
John UpdikeRead
Your religion was written on tablets of stone, ours on our hearts. 8. We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us.
Chief SeattleRead