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The thing about working with time, instead of against it, he thought, is that it is not wasted. Even pain counts.
Ursula K. Le Guin
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Working with time allows us to value every experience, including pain, rather than wasting our moments.

This quote by Ursula K. Le Guin emphasizes the importance of aligning ourselves with the natural flow of time and recognizing that every experience, even the painful ones, contributes to our growth and understanding. By accepting time as an ally rather than an adversary, we can find purpose and value in every moment, avoiding feelings of wastefulness and finding lessons in our struggles.

Themes

TimePainGrowthExperienceWisdom

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be shared in a meditation session to highlight acceptance of life's experiences.

More from Ursula K. Le Guin

It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
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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.
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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.
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The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
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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.
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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
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