This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is. We are searching for an ideal image of our own world: we go in quest of a planet, a civilization superior to our own but developed on the basis of a prototype of our primeval past.
Interpretation
The quote reflects humanity's quest for understanding and idealism rather than the acceptance of reality.
Stanislaw Lem's quote emphasizes the human tendency to seek out ideals and develop notions of a better world, often rooted in our own imperfections. It suggests that instead of appreciating our own existence and its realities, we yearn for an imagined version of it that could reflect a perfected self, particularly in the context of other civilizations or worlds. This pursuit indicates a level of dissatisfaction with the present and embodies a philosophical inquiry into human nature and our collective dreams.
In practice
In a debate on human aspirations, this quote can be used to emphasize our pursuit of ideal worlds.
The only writers who have any peace are the ones who don't write. And there are some like that. They wallow in a sea of possibilities. To express a thought, you first have to limit it, and that means kill it. Every word I speak robs me of a thousand others, and every line I write means giving up another.
We didn't know each other well. I never had the time. Now I see that it doesn't make any difference. The ones who hurry and the ones who take their time all end up in the same place. Just don't have any regrets. No regrets.
Cripple God, who always desires more than he's able to have, and doesn't always realize this to begin with. Who has built clocks, but not the time that they measure. Has built systems or mechanisms that serve particular purposes, but they too have outgrown these purposes and betrayed them. And has created an infinity that, from being the measure of the power he was supposed to have, turned into the measure of his boundless failure.
We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.
No one reads; if someone does read, he doesn't understand; if he understands, he immediately forgets.
A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before.
The forgotten man... He works, he votes, generally he prays, but his chief business in life is to pay.
The English language started out as a distortion in my life, but nothing remains the same, and so the distortion is now just normal. That is one of the things that will happen to all distortions: They become normal and turn into something else.
The young feel tired at the end of an action, the old at the beginning.
An inner process stands in need of outward criteria.
Conservatism leads nowhere; it satisfies no ideal.
We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights. Before governments were organized, no one denies that each individual possessed the right to protect his own life, liberty and property.
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