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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the limitations of creation and the paradox of infinite desires versus finite abilities.
In this quote, Stanislaw Lem presents a profound commentary on the idea of a creator, representing God as a figure who is burdened by insatiable desires and ambitions that exceed the bounds of reality. This depiction highlights the tension between the creations—such as clocks and mechanisms—and the limitations inherent to their existence, illustrating how these creations can outgrow their original intentions, mirroring a broader existential reflection on ambition, failure, and the nature of infinity itself.
In practice
In a speech about innovation, one might use this quote to illustrate the challenges creators face in realizing their ambitions.
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.
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.
Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen through I am afraid is pitiful.
Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.
What we make of people, and what we see in the mirror when we look at ourselves, depends on what we know of the world, what we believe to be possible, what memories we have, and whether our loyalties are to the past, the present or the future.
If we care about universal principles such as freedom, democracy and the rule of law, we cannot leave them to the care of market forces; we must establish some other institutions to safeguard them.
The man whom God wills to slay in the struggle of life - he first individualizes.
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