It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
From that time forth he believed that the wise man is one who never sets himself apart from other living things, whether they have speech or not, and in later years he strove long to learn what can be learned, in silence, from the eyes of animals, the flight of birds, the great slow gestures of trees.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True wisdom comes from understanding and connecting with all forms of life, not just human ones.
This quote by Ursula K. Le Guin emphasizes the importance of empathy and connection with the natural world. It suggests that wisdom is not just about human knowledge and speech, but also about learning from the silent presence of animals, plants, and the environment, highlighting a deep interconnection between all living beings.
Themes
WisdomNatureConnectionEmpathyLearning
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about environmental conservation to emphasize the lessons we can learn from nature.
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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