A person who believes… that there is a whole of which one is part, and that in being a part, one is whole: such a person has no desire whatever, at any time, to play God. Only those who have denied their being yearn to play at it.

About Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( KROH-bər lə GWIN; née Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe and the fantasy series Earthsea. Her work was first published...

More quotations from Ursula K. Le Guin

There is a field where all wonderful perfections of microscope and telescope fail. All exquisite niceties of weights and measures as well as that which is behind them, the keen and driving power of the mind. No facts, however indubitably detected, no effort of reason, however magnificently maintained, can prove that Bach's music is beautiful.

—Ursula K. Le Guin in The Dispossessed

mind beauty perfection reason

If you see a whole thing—it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives.… But up close a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern.

—Ursula K. Le Guin

True myths may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal. The real mystery is not destroyed by reason. The fake one is. You look at it and it vanishes. You look at the Blond Hero—really look—and he turns into a gerbil. But you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you. The poet Rilke looked at a statue of Apollo about fifty years ago, and Apollo spoke to him. "You must change your life," he said. When the true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message: "You must change your life.

—Ursula K. Le Guin

life religion change myth mystery art reason consciousness reflection inquiry

All civilization ever does is hide the blood and cover up hate with pretty words.

—Ursula K. Le Guin

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.

—Ursula K. Le Guin

love time change

More quotations tagged with “denial”

Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?

—Zora Neale Hurston

pleasure surprise anger discrimination denial

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

—Dr. Seuss

honesty identity denial

It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative.

—John Burroughs

mind belief denial

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

—Melody Beattie

life acceptance gratitude chaos denial

I can reason down or deny everything, except this perpetual Belly; feed he must and will, and I cannot make him respectable.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

hunger reason rationality denial

History

12 Apr 2014 Added
14 Jul 2015 Edited (details weren’t recorded yet)
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

A person who believes … that there is a whole of which one is part, and that in being a part, one is whole: such a person has no desire whatever, at any time, to play God. Only those who have denied their being yearn to play at it.