It is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception and compassion and hope.

Le Guin argues that imagination is not escapist ornament but a primary human faculty that makes ethical life possible. By imagining what we cannot directly see—other people’s inner lives, distant consequences, alternative social arrangements—we sharpen perception beyond mere sensory data. That same imaginative reach enables compassion (the ability to feel with others) and sustains hope by allowing us to conceive of futures different from the present. The line also reflects Le Guin’s long defense of fiction, especially speculative literature, as a mode of serious knowing: storytelling trains the mind to recognize complexity, resist dehumanizing simplifications, and keep open the possibility of change.