--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: In war everybody is a prisoner." description: "\"In war everybody is a prisoner.\" — Ursula K. Le Guin" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/91d/ursula-k-le-guin-138_prisoner_in-war-everybody-is-a-prisoner-936983_936983.jpg" --- # In war everybody is a prisoner. ![“In war everybody is a prisoner.” quote by Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/91d/ursula-k-le-guin-138_prisoner_in-war-everybody-is-a-prisoner-936983_936983.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/91d/ursula-k-le-guin-138_prisoner_in-war-everybody-is-a-prisoner-936983_936983.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/91d/ursula-k-le-guin-138_prisoner_in-war-everybody-is-a-prisoner-936983_936983.jpg) > “In war everybody is a prisoner.” [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. War confines everyone, stripping freedom and agency. **In simple terms:** War makes all prisoners. Key Takeaway Recognize war’s universal cost. Themes conflict freedom humanity Mood somber reflective Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - military service - civil unrest - refugee experience Key Concepts political science ethics Questions to Reflect On - How does war affect personal identity? - Can freedom exist in conflict? A Different Perspective Some may find purpose within war. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Everybody Prisoner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/everybody-prisoner-1571828/) [Prisoner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prisoner/) [War](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/war/) ## Related quotes > [Those who build walls are their own prisoners.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/those-who-build-walls-are-their-own-prisoners/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“The prisoner is the jailer's jailer.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/the-prisoner-is-the-jailer-s-jailer/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [Phaedra of Alonso’s death was a never-ending pain that gnawed at his insides. It made him a prisoner in his own cottage.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/melina-marchetta/phaedra-of-alonso-s-death-was-a-never-ending-pain-that-gnawed-at-his/) [Melina Marchetta](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/melina-marchetta/) > [“A prisoner is imprisoned by the crime that he has committed. A jailer is imprisoned — in the very same prison — by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mokokoma-mokhonoana/a-prisoner-is-imprisoned-by-the-crime-that-he-has-committed-a-jailer/) [Mokokoma Mokhonoana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mokokoma-mokhonoana/) > [I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see my face and feel…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ingmar-bergman/i-want-to-confess-as-best-i-can-but-my-heart-is-void-the-void-is-a/) [Ingmar Bergman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ingmar-bergman/) > [Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henri-matisse/arrival-prison-and-the-artist-must-never-be-a-prisoner/) [Henri Matisse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henri-matisse/) > [Karma is often wrongly confused with the notion of a fixed destiny. It is more like an accumulation of tendencies that can lock us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jon-kabat-zinn/karma-is-often-wrongly-confused-with-the-notion-of-a-fixed-destiny-it/) [Jon Kabat-Zinn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jon-kabat-zinn/) > [In the innermost recesses of humanism, as its very soul, there rages a frantic prisoner who, as a Fascist, turns the world into a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/in-the-innermost-recesses-of-humanism-as-its-very-soul-there-rages-a/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Our sins are debts that none can pay but Christ. It is not our tears, but His blood; it is not our sighs, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-brooks/our-sins-are-debts-that-none-can-pay-but-christ-it-is-not-our-tears/) [Thomas Brooks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-brooks/) > [“If you know only one language, you're a prisoner, stuck in the tyranny of that one language.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-cohen/if-you-know-only-one-language-you-re-a-prisoner-stuck-in-the-tyranny/) [Andrew Cohen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-cohen/) > [American soldiers had to guard prisoners on the inside while receiving mortar and weapons fire from the outside. Guantanamo is distant from any battlefield,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-yoo/american-soldiers-had-to-guard-prisoners-on-the-inside-while/) [John Yoo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-yoo/) > [Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/forgiveness-is-unlocking-the-door-to-set-someone-free-and-realizing/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Tonight I feel like a prisoner on fire, waiting desperately... denied, sentenced forever more. Only your love can set me free.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-bolton/tonight-i-feel-like-a-prisoner-on-fire-waiting-desperately-denied/) [Michael Bolton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-bolton/) > [I will be a model prisoner, as I have been a model citizen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edwin-edwards/i-will-be-a-model-prisoner-as-i-have-been-a-model-citizen/) [Edwin Edwards](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edwin-edwards/) > [“It breaks my heart. Better than your words, your eye tells me all your peril. You are not yet free, you still search for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/it-breaks-my-heart-better-than-your-words-your-eye-tells-me-all-your/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) ## 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 Prisoner quotes > [“It breaks my heart. Better than your words, your eye tells me all your peril. You are not yet free, you still search for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/it-breaks-my-heart-better-than-your-words-your-eye-tells-me-all-your/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [I will be a model prisoner, as I have been a model citizen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edwin-edwards/i-will-be-a-model-prisoner-as-i-have-been-a-model-citizen/) [Edwin Edwards](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edwin-edwards/) > [Tonight I feel like a prisoner on fire, waiting desperately... denied, sentenced forever more. Only your love can set me free.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-bolton/tonight-i-feel-like-a-prisoner-on-fire-waiting-desperately-denied/) [Michael Bolton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-bolton/) > [Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/forgiveness-is-unlocking-the-door-to-set-someone-free-and-realizing/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [American soldiers had to guard prisoners on the inside while receiving mortar and weapons fire from the outside. Guantanamo is distant from any battlefield,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-yoo/american-soldiers-had-to-guard-prisoners-on-the-inside-while/) [John Yoo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-yoo/) > [“If you know only one language, you're a prisoner, stuck in the tyranny of that one language.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-cohen/if-you-know-only-one-language-you-re-a-prisoner-stuck-in-the-tyranny/) [Andrew Cohen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-cohen/) > [Our sins are debts that none can pay but Christ. It is not our tears, but His blood; it is not our sighs, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-brooks/our-sins-are-debts-that-none-can-pay-but-christ-it-is-not-our-tears/) [Thomas Brooks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-brooks/) > [In the innermost recesses of humanism, as its very soul, there rages a frantic prisoner who, as a Fascist, turns the world into a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/in-the-innermost-recesses-of-humanism-as-its-very-soul-there-rages-a/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Karma is often wrongly confused with the notion of a fixed destiny. It is more like an accumulation of tendencies that can lock us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jon-kabat-zinn/karma-is-often-wrongly-confused-with-the-notion-of-a-fixed-destiny-it/) [Jon Kabat-Zinn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jon-kabat-zinn/) > [Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henri-matisse/arrival-prison-and-the-artist-must-never-be-a-prisoner/) [Henri Matisse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henri-matisse/) > [I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see my face and feel…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ingmar-bergman/i-want-to-confess-as-best-i-can-but-my-heart-is-void-the-void-is-a/) [Ingmar Bergman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ingmar-bergman/) > [“A prisoner is imprisoned by the crime that he has committed. A jailer is imprisoned — in the very same prison — by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mokokoma-mokhonoana/a-prisoner-is-imprisoned-by-the-crime-that-he-has-committed-a-jailer/) [Mokokoma Mokhonoana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mokokoma-mokhonoana/) > [Phaedra of Alonso’s death was a never-ending pain that gnawed at his insides. It made him a prisoner in his own cottage.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/melina-marchetta/phaedra-of-alonso-s-death-was-a-never-ending-pain-that-gnawed-at-his/) [Melina Marchetta](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/melina-marchetta/) > [If you're working on better conditions for prisoners, if you make that a popular issue and you invite mainstream media to weigh in on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rachel-maddow/if-you-re-working-on-better-conditions-for-prisoners-if-you-make-that/) [Rachel Maddow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rachel-maddow/) > [Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated! No quarter will be given! Prisoners will not be taken! Whoever falls into your hands…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilhelm-ii/should-you-encounter-the-enemy-he-will-be-defeated-no-quarter-will-be/) [Wilhelm II](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilhelm-ii/) [Browse all 960 Prisoner quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prisoner/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In war everybody is a prisoner.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ursula K. 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