| HOME |
 Wednesday, April 04, 2007 cleft for me I finished reading Xenocide by Orson Scott Card over the weekend. It had some very heavy parts on god, religion, and the universe, and it was ultra-sci-fi. I enjoyed it. Excerpts I'd like to share: "The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them." She had always thought that if only people could communicate mind-to-mind, eliminating the ambiguities of language, then understanding would be perfect and there'd be no more needless conflicts. Instead she had discovered that rather than magnifying differences between people, language might just as easily soften them, minimize them, smooth things over so that people could get along even though they really didn't understand each other. The illusion of comprehension allowed people to think they were more alike than they really were. Maybe language was better. "This business with gods is something I don't understand," said Jane. "Hasn't anyone caught on yet that the gods always say what people want to hear?" "Not so," said Ender. "The gods often ask us to do things we never desired, things that require us to sacrifice everything on their behalf. Don't underestimate the gods." No matter how well you know what a person has done and what he thought he was doing when he did it and what he now thinks of what he did, it is impossible to be certain of what he will do next. "Are you a believer?" "Let's say I'm a suspecter. I suspect there may be someone who cares what happens to us. That's one step better than merely wishing. And one step below hoping." "The future is a hundred thousand threads, but the past is a fabric that can never be rewoven. Maybe I could have been content. Maybe not." When you have wisdom that another person knows that he needs, you give it freely. But when the other person doesn't yet know that he needs your wisdom, you keep it to yourself. Food only looks good to a hungry man. "You can't have it both ways," said Wiggin. "Either somebody had a purpose for you or you were an accident. That's what an accident is – something that happened without anyone purposing it. So are you going to be resentful either way?... I think you don't grow up until you stop worrying about other people's purposes or lack of them and find the purposes you believe in for yourself." Labels: literary posted by Jennifer at 4/04/2007 02:27:00 PM
|
About Me
"Animals are my friends; I don't eat my friends." previously
weblogs I enjoy: you should visit...
|
|||||
SuperP. said...
Post a Comment"When you have wisdom that another person knows that he needs, you give it freely. But when the other person doesn't yet know that he needs your wisdom, you keep it to yourself. Food only looks good to a hungry man."
4/07/2007 08:30:00 AMThis line is perfectly true and I really needed to read it.
<< Home