It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the pervasive nature of capitalism and draws a parallel to historical systems of power that seemed unchallengeable.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote prompts us to consider the inherent structures of power that define our society, particularly capitalism, which can feel all-consuming and unchangeable. By comparing it to the concept of the divine right of kings, she highlights that just as past forms of governance were once thought to be ordained and absolute, so too can capitalism be viewed as a system that may eventually be challenged or transformed by collective human action.
Themes
CapitalismPowerSocial ChangeHistorySociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on social systems, one could use this quote to spark discussion on the nature of power in societal structures.
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
Similar quotes
To get overprotective about particular readings of the Bible is always in danger of idolatry.
N. T. WrightRead
The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death-wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of aggression, nor, finally and more plausibly, the serious economic and social dangers inherent in disarmament, but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene.
Hannah ArendtRead
We in the Western world suffer from too many categories and classes; we've forgotten that we all still have diapers on. We've separated music from life.
Ornette ColemanRead
He who floats with the current, who does not guide himself according to higher principles, who has no ideal, no convictions-such a man is . . . a thing moved, instead of a living and moving being-an echo, not a voice. The man who has no inner-life is a slave of his surroundings as the barometer is the obedient servant of the air.
Henri Frederic AmielRead
We are all jars of clay, fragile and poor, yet we carry within us an immense treasure.
Pope FrancisRead
The fact that people die because of an AK-47 is not because of the designer, but because of politics.
Mikhail KalashnikovRead