The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.

—Ursula K. Le Guin

life future knowledge uncertainty

About Ursula K. Le Guin

Portrait of 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 “uncertainty”

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.

—Wernher von Braun

uncertainty research exploration

There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.

—Gertrude Stein

uncertainty answers

The world is noisy and messy. You need to deal with the noise and uncertainty.

—Daphne Koller

uncertainty noise the world

Sometimes things don't turn out the way you want them to. Sometimes the people you choose to believe are wrong.

—Sarah Dessen in That Summer

people uncertainty

I believe that uncertainty is really my spirit's way of whispering, "I'm in flux. I can't decide for you. Something is off-balance here.

—Pliny the Elder

History

6 Aug 2013 Added
14 Jul 2015 Edited (details weren’t recorded yet)