It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A paradox that invites skepticism and introspection about truth and trust.
This quote by Ursula K. Le Guin suggests a complex relationship between truth and perception. By urging listeners to distrust her words while claiming to speak the truth, she presents a paradox that challenges our understanding of honesty and the nature of communication. It highlights the idea that the truth can be subjective and that one must critically evaluate the information they receive, even from those who claim to be truthful.
Themes
TruthDistrustPerceptionSkepticismCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical debate about the nature of truth, this quote could encourage participants to reflect on their biases.
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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