It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
They can send death at once, but life is slower.
Interpretation
Life unfolds gradually while death can come suddenly.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote reflects on the nature of life and death, emphasizing that the experience of living is often prolonged, filled with complexities and nuances, whereas death can strike abruptly and without warning. This highlights a fundamental truth about human existence, where the journey of life is intricate and layered, contrasting with the simplicity and immediacy of death.
In practice
In a speech about the resilience of the human spirit, this quote can illustrate the gradual journey of overcoming challenges.
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
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.
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.
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
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.
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
If there is no other life, then this one has been enough to make it worth being born myself...a human being.
If Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything in recent history, it is the unpredictability of war and that these things are easier to get into than to get out of, and, frankly, the facile way in which too many people talk about, 'Well, let's just go attack them.'
Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night
To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.
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