Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there was it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away.
Interpretation
Life is uncertain, and seeking guarantees leads to stagnation.
Ray Bradbury emphasizes that trying to secure guarantees in life is a futile endeavor, as true fulfillment comes from embracing uncertainty and actively engaging with life. He uses the metaphor of a sloth to illustrate that those who seek safety and stability may end up missing out on life itself, metaphorically hanging upside down and drifting through their existence without purpose.
In practice
This quote can inspire people at a motivational seminar to embrace risks in their personal and professional lives.
I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)
I never went to college, so I went to the library.
There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.
I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
The first thing a writer should be is - excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health.
You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
It's a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue, and, moreover, you can time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don't see or care.
After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.
A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can never be spent.
The human body is a steed that goes freest and longest under a light rider, and the lightest of all riders is a cheerful heart.
Little hinges swing big doors.
By criticizing, we do not make lasting changes and often incur resentment.
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