It's ironic that in our culture everyone's biggest complaint is about not having enough time; yet nothing terrifies us more than the thought of eternity.
Interpretation
People often express a lack of time in their lives, yet the idea of eternity can provoke fear.
This quote highlights the irony in human nature: while we constantly bemoan our busy lives and the shortage of time, the concept of eternity, which signifies an endless stretch of time, is often met with dread. It suggests that while we crave more time to achieve and experience, the thought of infinite existence unnerves us, revealing a deeper discomfort with the nature of time and existence itself.
In practice
During a discussion about work-life balance, one could mention this quote to emphasize our paradoxical feelings about time.
Of course it is a very simple matter to identify genes which might modify intelligence or memory and start thinking about whether you want to enhance a human, and the next generation is going to have to deal with that issue. Should we be trying to enhance humans rather than trying to educate them and so on?
Much faith will yield unto us here our heaven, but any faith, if true, will yield us heaven hereafter.
Both our present science and our present technology are so tinctured with orthodox Christian arrogance toward nature that no solution for our ecologic crisis can be expected from them alone. Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and refeel our nature and destiny.
To suggest things may be going on in our brains that we aren't fully conscious of, that we unknowingly make classist, sexist and racist presumptions... Well, there just aren't many comfortable ways to take that. And in the face of discomfort comes the mask of defence.
I decided to be what crime made of me.
There is an increasing awareness of the interrelatedness of things. We are becoming less prone to accept an immediate solution without questioning its larger implications.
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