“Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.”

Source: The Lathe of Heaven (1971), Chapter 6 (Orr)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the funct…" by Ursula K. Le Guin?
Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Ursula K. Le Guin 292
American writer 1929–2018

Related quotes

Adam Mickiewicz photo

“For mum we're fly. What mum you don't know who am I? I am Józio. And this is my sister Rózia. Now we're fly in sky! There is better than mum. See how heads in ray. Clothes with lucifer light. And on my hand as butterfly airfoil in sky we have all what we want, every day other toy, where we go here is grass, where we touch here is a flower. But we have what we want, torture us boring and trepidation. Oh mum for Your children road to heaven has been closed! On Always!”

Do mamy lecim do mamy! Cóż to, mamo nie znasz Józia? Ja to Józio ja ten samy. A to moja siostra Rózia. My teraz w raju latamy, Tam nam lepiej niż u mamy. Patrz jakie główki w promieniu, Ubiór z jutrzenki światełka, A na oboim ramieniu Jak u motylków skrzydełka, w raju wszystkiego dostatek, Co dzień to inna zabawka, gdzie stąpim wypływa trawka, gdzie dotkniem rozkwita kwiatek. Lecz choć wszystkiego dostatek dręczy nad nuda i trwoga. Ach mamo dla twoich dziatek zamknięta do nieba droga!
Part two.
Dziady (Forefathers' Eve) http://www.ap.krakow.pl/nkja/literature/polpoet/mic_fore.htm

Susan Blackmore photo
Ernst von Glasersfeld photo

“What we call knowledge does not and cannot have the purpose of producing representations of an independent reality, but instead has an adaptive function.”

Ernst von Glasersfeld (1917–2010) German philosopher

Source: Von Glasersfeld cited in: E. John Capaldi, Robert W. Proctor (1999) Contextualism in psychological research?: a critical review. p. 10

James McBride (writer) photo

“Most of my characters: they don't yell, they don't scream. They don't curse, by and large. They're good people. And you know what? Good people don't have to be boring. The really interesting parts of life are the parts we are not witness to. Because the man who decides to shake his neighbor's hand, or help him cut the grass, they're the true heroes…”

James McBride (writer) (1957) American journalist

On writing about good people in “‘Color of Water’ author, James McBride, reflects on race, politics and his new book” https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/novelist-james-mcbride-talks-about-race-politics--and-his-new-book/2017/09/25/8774c4a4-97a1-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html in The Washington Post (2017 Sept 26)

Garth Nix photo

“I don't… I don't care," he said softly to his reflection. "I have a job to do. It doesn't matter what I have become. It doesn't matter what I look like.”

Garth Nix (1963) Australian fantasy writer

Source: The Keys to the Kingdom series, Lord Sunday (2010), p. 45.

Neil Strauss photo
Ayn Rand photo
John Travolta photo
Larry Wall photo

“And I don't like doing silly things (except on purpose).”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

Usenet postings, 1992

Related topics