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You frighten me, when you say there isn't time." "I don't see why. Christians have been expecting the imminent end of the world for millennia." "But it keeps not ending." "So far, so good.
Orson Scott Card
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on the human tendency to fear the unknown and the paradox of anticipating the end of the world without it actually arriving.

In this exchange, the speakers discuss the fear associated with the idea of time running out, especially concerning existential beliefs about the impending end of the world. The dialogue highlights the irony of humanity's long-standing expectation of an apocalypse, which has not materialized, suggesting that despite ongoing fears and anxieties, life continues and there is much to value in the present.

Themes

FearTimeExistenceApocalypseContinuation

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a discussion about existential philosophy during a university lecture.

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