It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
A scientist can pretend that his work isn't himself, it's merely the impersonal truth. An artist can't hide behind the truth. He can't hide anywhere.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the difference between scientists and artists in how they relate to their work and self-identity.
Ursula K. Le Guin illustrates the distinction between the roles of a scientist and an artist. A scientist can detach themselves from their findings, presenting them as objective truths, whereas an artist is intrinsically connected to their creations, unable to separate their personal experiences and emotions from their art. This suggests that art is a more personal endeavor, requiring vulnerability and self-exposure.
Themes
ArtTruthIdentitySelfVulnerability
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during an art class to inspire students about the emotional connection to their work.
More from Ursula K. Le Guin
All quotes βIn 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. βDo they expect students not to be anarchists?β he said. βWhat 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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