It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Well, we think that time "passes," flows past us, but what if it is we who move forward, from past to future, always discovering the new? It would be a little like reading a book, you see. The book is all there, all at once, between its covers. But if you want to read the story and understand it, you must begin with the first page, and go forward, always in order. So the universe would be a very great book, and we would be very small readers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that time may not be flowing but rather that we are progressing through it like readers moving through a book.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote invites us to consider a different perspective on time. Instead of viewing time as a river flowing past us, she metaphorically compares it to a book that contains all moments simultaneously, where we, as readers, navigate through the narrative from beginning to end. This implies that each moment is already present, and our experience of time is more about our journey of discovery and understanding, rather than just the relentless passage of time itself.
Themes
TimePerspectiveLifeExperienceUniverseNarrative
In practice
Example use cases
In an inspirational speech about the value of time and personal growth.
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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