QuoteProject
We broke the world to make it whole.
Ursula K. Le Guin
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the paradox of destruction leading to creation and healing.

Ursula K. Le Guin's quote, 'We broke the world to make it whole,' suggests that through the act of breaking down existing structures or systems, one can pave the way for renewal and healing. It highlights the idea that sometimes, in order to achieve completeness or wholeness, one must first confront and dismantle the imperfections and flaws within the world. This process, while painful and destructive, can ultimately lead to a more profound understanding and a better future.

Themes

ChangeCreationHealingPhilosophyDestruction

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion on environmental sustainability, one might use this quote to emphasize the necessity of drastic measures for long-term restoration.

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.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
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. β€œDo they expect students not to be anarchists?” he said. β€œWhat else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
Ursula K. Le GuinRead

Similar quotes

Rosencrantz: We might as well be dead. Do you think death could possibly be a boat? Guildenstern: No, no, no... Death is...not. Death isn't. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not-be on a boat. Rosencrantz: I've frequently not been on boats. Guildenstern: No, no, no--what you've been is not on boats.
Tom StoppardRead
When you are eighty years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices.
Jeff BezosRead
'Stupidity' defines the mental state wherein we acknowledge that we've never been smarter as individuals and yet somehow we've never felt stupider. We now collectively inhabit a state of stupidity.
Douglas CouplandRead
A few years ago it dawned on me that everybody past a certain age - regardless of how they look on the outside - pretty much constantly dreams of being able to escape from their lives.
Douglas CouplandRead
I think that hell essentially is separation from God forever. And that is the worst hell that I can think of. But I think people have a hard time believing God is going to allow people to burn in literal fire forever. I think the fire that is mentioned in the Bible is a burning thirst for God that can never be quenched.
Billy GrahamRead
A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.
Alexander Graham BellRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Ursula K. Le Guin | QuoteProject