--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I know that I am going to meet a personal…" description: "\"“I know that I am going to meet a personal variation on reality; a partial view of reality. But I know also that by that partiality, that distancing fr..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bd7/ursula-k-le-guin-138_dickens_i-know-that-i-am-going-to-meet-a-persona_2772938.jpg" --- # I know that I am going to meet a personal variation on… ![“I know that I am going to meet a personal variation on reality; a partial view of reality. But I know also that by that partiality, that distancing from the shared experience, it will be new: a revelation. It will be a vision, a more or less powerful or haunting dream. A space-voyage through…” quote by Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bd7/ursula-k-le-guin-138_dickens_i-know-that-i-am-going-to-meet-a-persona_2772938.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bd7/ursula-k-le-guin-138_dickens_i-know-that-i-am-going-to-meet-a-persona_2772938.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bd7/ursula-k-le-guin-138_dickens_i-know-that-i-am-going-to-meet-a-persona_2772938.jpg) > ““I know that I am going to meet a personal variation on reality; a partial view of reality. But I know also that by that partiality, that distancing from the shared experience, it will be new: a revelation. It will be a vision, a more or less powerful or haunting dream. A space-voyage through somebody else's psychic abysses. It will fall short of tragedy, because tragedy is the truth, and truth is what the very great artists, the absolute novelists, tell. It will not be truth; but it will be imagination. Truth is best. For it encompasses tragedy and partakes of the eternal joy. But very few of us know it; the best we can do is recognize it. Imagination - to me - is the next best. For it partakes of Creation, which is one aspect of the eternal joy. All the rest is either Politics or Pedantry, or Mainstream Fiction, may it rest in peace.”” [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote contrasts truth and imagination, suggesting that while truth holds tragedy and eternal joy, imagination offers a creative, revelatory experience that transcends ordinary perception. **In simple terms:** Imagination offers a creative, truth‑bound revelation. Key Takeaway Value imagination as a path to deeper insight. Themes creativity truth imagination art philosophy Mood contemplative inspired Type philosophical literary When to use this quote - artistic creation - literary analysis - personal reflection - spiritual exploration Key Concepts existentialism aesthetic theory cognitive perception Questions to Reflect On - How does imagination shape your understanding of reality? - When is truth more essential than imagination? A Different Perspective Imagination cannot replace factual truth in critical decision‑making. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Dickens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dickens/) [Dreams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dreams/) [Fantasy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fantasy/) [Great Artists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/great-artists/) [Imagination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagination/) [Imagination Truth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagination-truth-811520/) [Reality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reality/) [Reality Partial](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reality-partial-1798270/) [Rest in peace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rest-in-peace/) [Science fiction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science-fiction/) [Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tolstoy/) [Truth Imagination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/truth-imagination-1917409/) ## Related quotes > [It is the human condition to question one god after another, one appearance after another, or better, one apparition after another, always pursuing the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-chartier/it-is-the-human-condition-to-question-one-god-after-another-one/) [Emile Chartier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-chartier/) > [Reality is partial to symmetry and slight anachronisms](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/reality-is-partial-to-symmetry-and-slight-anachronisms/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [It always amuses me that the biggest praise for my work comes for the imagination, while the truth is that there's not a single…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/it-always-amuses-me-that-the-biggest-praise-for-my-work-comes-for-the/) [Gabriel Garcia Marquez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/) > [Imagination, which in truth Is but another name for absolute power And clearest insight, amplitude of mind, And reason, in her most exalted mood.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-wordsworth/imagination-which-in-truth-is-but-another-name-for-absolute-power-and/) [William Wordsworth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-wordsworth/) > [The artist's imagination may wander far from nature. But as long as it is a living, moving power in his brain, isn't it just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-vaughan/the-artist-s-imagination-may-wander-far-from-nature-but-as-long-as-it/) [Bill Vaughan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-vaughan/) > [Art is the response to the demand for entertainment, for the stimulation of our senses and imagination, and truth enters into it only as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/art-is-the-response-to-the-demand-for-entertainment-for-the/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [“In this world we come across poetic imagination and not Truth.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohan-gaitonde/in-this-world-we-come-across-poetic-imagination-and-not-truth/) [Mohan Gaitonde](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mohan-gaitonde/) > [I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis/i-think-that-all-things-in-their-way-reflect-heavenly-truth-the/) [C. S. Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-s-lewis/) > [“For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.”16”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-arthur/for-me-reason-is-the-natural-organ-of-truth-but-imagination-is-the/) [Sarah Arthur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-arthur/) > [I believe fervently in the nature, in truth and imagination, I believe in the blood, in life, words, and motivations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gael-garcia-bernal/i-believe-fervently-in-the-nature-in-truth-and-imagination-i-believe/) [Gael Garcia Bernal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gael-garcia-bernal/) > [The thing about imagination is that by the very act of putting it down, there must be some truth in one's own imagination.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dennis-potter/the-thing-about-imagination-is-that-by-the-very-act-of-putting-it/) [Dennis Potter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dennis-potter/) > [For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/for-me-reason-is-the-natural-organ-of-truth-but-imagination-is-the-2/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis/reason-is-the-natural-order-of-truth-but-imagination-is-the-organ-of/) [C. S. Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-s-lewis/) > [Romance is the truth of imagination and boyhood. Homer's horses clear the world at a bound. The child's eye needs no horizon to its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-aris-willmott/romance-is-the-truth-of-imagination-and-boyhood-homer-s-horses-clear/) [Robert Aris Willmott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-aris-willmott/) > [I am certain of nothing but the Holiness of the Heart's affections and the Truth of the Imagination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/i-am-certain-of-nothing-but-the-holiness-of-the-heart-s-affections/) [John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/) ## More by Ursula K. Le Guin > [“...I wore his blood for clothing, on my legs and thighs and hands: a dry, stiff, brown garment with no warmth in it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/i-wore-his-blood-for-clothing-on-my-legs-and-thighs-and-hands-a-dry/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [Translation is entirely mysterious. Increasingly I have felt that the art of writing is itself translating, or more like translating than it is like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/translation-is-entirely-mysterious-increasingly-i-have-felt-that-the/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“Aeneas' mother is a star?" "No; a goddess." I said cautiously, "Venus is the power that we invoke in spring, in the garden, when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/aeneas-mother-is-a-star-no-a-goddess-i-said-cautiously-venus-is-the/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“Meaning - this is perhaps the common note, the bane I am seeking. What is the Meaning of this book, this event in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/meaning-this-is-perhaps-the-common-note-the-bane-i-am-seeking-what-is/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [For fantasy is true, of course. It isn't factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/for-fantasy-is-true-of-course-it-isn-t-factual-but-it-is-true/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“. . . chronosophy does involve ethics. Because our sense of time involves our ability to separate cause and effect, means and end. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/chronosophy-does-involve-ethics-because-our-sense-of-time-involves/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“If both you and your plane are on time, the airport is merely a diffuse, short, miserable prelude to the intense, long, miserable plane…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/if-both-you-and-your-plane-are-on-time-the-airport-is-merely-a/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“The author is not impartial. Dystopia is not tragedy.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/the-author-is-not-impartial-dystopia-is-not-tragedy/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [Between thought and spoken word is a gap where intention can enter, the symbol be twisted aside, and the lie come to be.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/between-thought-and-spoken-word-is-a-gap-where-intention-can-enter/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [I have no control over my writing. I have lots of good intentions, but no control. There's a story that wants to be told.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/i-have-no-control-over-my-writing-i-have-lots-of-good-intentions-but/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“I did a lot today. That is, I did something. The only thing I have ever done. I pressed a button. It took the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/i-did-a-lot-today-that-is-i-did-something-the-only-thing-i-have-ever/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [To me the female principle is, or at least historically has been, basically anarchic. It values order without constraint, rule by custom not by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/to-me-the-female-principle-is-or-at-least-historically-has-been/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“Hector had no virtue?” “Of course he did. He won all his battles, till the last one.” “We all do,” Aeneas remarked.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/hector-had-no-virtue-of-course-he-did-he-won-all-his-battles-till-the/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“I was willing to believe him that most modern writing was trash, on the evidence that so much old writing was trash; but I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/i-was-willing-to-believe-him-that-most-modern-writing-was-trash-on/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“Can women operate as women in a male institution without becoming imitation men?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/can-women-operate-as-women-in-a-male-institution-without-becoming/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) [Explore all 1,114 Ursula K. Le Guin quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) ## More Dickens quotes > [Something that comes to us, some gym shoe that comes to us as a result of child labor from a brutal dictatorship, where people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/p-j-o-rourke/something-that-comes-to-us-some-gym-shoe-that-comes-to-us-as-a-result/) [P. J. O'Rourke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/p-j-o-rourke/) > [“(On Charles Dickens) It has been the peculiarity and the marvel of this man’s power, that he has invested his puppets with a charm…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-trollope/on-charles-dickens-it-has-been-the-peculiarity-and-the-marvel-of-this/) [Anthony Trollope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-trollope/) > [Tolkien is as good as Dickens at sketching a scene.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mckellen/tolkien-is-as-good-as-dickens-at-sketching-a-scene/) [Ian Mckellen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mckellen/) > [Old Flossie settle down on the other side of What-the-Dickens and dragged some handiwork out of a sack. She armed herself with two thorns…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gregory-maguire/old-flossie-settle-down-on-the-other-side-of-what-the-dickens-and/) [Gregory Maguire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gregory-maguire/) > [I was a complete and typical only child. I was bookish, and sport was out of the question anyway. I had read all of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-starkey/i-was-a-complete-and-typical-only-child-i-was-bookish-and-sport-was/) [David Starkey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-starkey/) > [I'm sure I've been influenced by every fine writer I've ever read, from Dickens and Austen to Auden and Jane Hirshfield. And also, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amy-bloom/i-m-sure-i-ve-been-influenced-by-every-fine-writer-i-ve-ever-read/) [Amy Bloom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amy-bloom/) > [In spite of their obvious differences, folk art and popular art have much in common; they are easy to understand, they are romantic, patriotic,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-seldes/in-spite-of-their-obvious-differences-folk-art-and-popular-art-have/) [Gilbert Seldes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-seldes/) > [“Dickens's humanity and compassion made an extraordinary impact on Victorian England through his writings, which remain immensely popular. This bicentenary should help renew our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/dickens-s-humanity-and-compassion-made-an-extraordinary-impact-on/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“The Victorian era was an age of superlatives and larger-than-life characters, and as far as that goes, Dr. Wildman Whitehouse fit right in: what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neal-stephenson/the-victorian-era-was-an-age-of-superlatives-and-larger-than-life/) [Neal Stephenson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neal-stephenson/) > [On the day long after childhood when I suddenly heard of his death, the sky grew dark above my head. I was walking on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-elizabeth-sangster/on-the-day-long-after-childhood-when-i-suddenly-heard-of-his-death/) [Margaret Elizabeth Sangster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-elizabeth-sangster/) > [Great books are readable anyway. Dickens is readable. Jane Austen is readable. John Updike's readable. Hawthorne's readable. It's a meaningless term. You have to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julian-barnes/great-books-are-readable-anyway-dickens-is-readable-jane-austen-is/) [Julian Barnes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julian-barnes/) > [“As I know only too well, anticipation od happiness can sometimes be as gratifying as its consummation. Even during the first months of my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaynor-arnold/as-i-know-only-too-well-anticipation-od-happiness-can-sometimes-be-as/) [Gaynor Arnold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaynor-arnold/) > [ \[President Johnson\] had the political will to say that having one in five Americans living in the kind of abject conditions their fellow citizens… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anna-quindlen/president-johnson-had-the-political-will-to-say-that-having-one-in/) [Anna Quindlen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anna-quindlen/) > [Something went wrong with my right arm. I no longer could throw hard, and it hurt like the dickens every time I threw.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dazzy-vance/something-went-wrong-with-my-right-arm-i-no-longer-could-throw-hard/) [Dazzy Vance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dazzy-vance/) > [“‎Whoever was the person behind Stonehenge was one dickens of a motivator, I'll tell you that.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-bryson/whoever-was-the-person-behind-stonehenge-was-one-dickens-of-a/) [Bill Bryson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-bryson/) [Browse all 324 Dickens quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dickens/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I know that I am going to meet a personal variation on reality; a partial view of reality. But I know also that by that partiality, that distancing from the shared experience, it will be new: a revelation. It will be a vision, a more or less powerful or haunting dream. A space-voyage through somebody else's psychic abysses. It will fall short of tragedy, because tragedy is the truth, and truth is what the very great artists, the absolute novelists, tell. It will not be truth; but it will be imagination. Truth is best. For it encompasses tragedy and partakes of the eternal joy. But very few of us know it; the best we can do is recognize it. Imagination - to me - is the next best. For it partakes of Creation, which is one aspect of the eternal joy. All the rest is either Politics or Pedantry, or Mainstream Fiction, may it rest in peace.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ursula K. 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