It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that closure, such as finishing a book, can bring clarity and peace of mind.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote reflects the idea that engaging deeply with a book can lead to profound thoughts and emotions, but once the story concludes and the book is closed, a sense of sanity and clarity often returns. It's a commentary on how temporary immersion in narratives allows for reflection and understanding, only to be interrupted by reality when the engagement ends.
Themes
SanityBooksClosureNarrativeReflection
In practice
Example use cases
During a TED Talk about the importance of literature in mental health, one could use this quote.
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
Similar quotes
'Let the Great World Spin' at the end talks a lot about connections and light and possibility and the fact that the world doesn't end. Even in the darkest times, we have to go on.
Colum MccannRead
If you want to be wrong then follow the masses.
SocratesRead
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
Bill GatesRead
It is better to be an outcast, a stranger in one’s own country, than an outcast from one’s self. It is better to see what is about to befall us and to resist than to retreat into the fantasies embraced by a nation of the blind.
Chris HedgesRead
To create worry humans elongate fear with anticipation and memory, expand it in imagination and fuel it with emotion. The uniquely human mental process called worrying depends upon having a brain that can reason, remember, reflect, feel, and imagine. Only humans have a brain big enough to do this simultaneously and do it well.
Edward HallowellRead
Don't worry about what the people say; be yourself, say what you want to say WITH respect.
Mariano RiveraRead