It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the elusive and perhaps unattainable nature of true happiness and the unknown reasons that drive people to make difficult choices.
In this quote, Ursula K. Le Guin contemplates the destination of those who choose to leave the city of Omelas, a utopian society that hides a dark secret. The quote suggests that the pursuit of happiness may lead individuals to paths and understandings that are beyond our comprehension, potentially towards an ideal that may not even exist. This reflects a deep philosophical inquiry into the nature of happiness, morality, and the choices that define our lives.
Themes
HappinessChoicesJourneyOmelasPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech to illustrate the importance of following your own path.
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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