A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth reading.
Interpretation
Life is unpredictable, much like a story that unfolds with surprises until the end.
This quote by Yevgeny Zamyatin suggests that the journey of life is filled with uncertainty and unexpected twists, akin to reading a novel where the conclusion remains unknown until the final pages. It implies that the value of both life and literature lies in their unpredictability and the experiences that lead us to our eventual outcomes.
In practice
Using this quote in a graduation speech to highlight the unpredictable journey of life ahead.
The knife is the most durable, immortal, the most genius thing that man created. The knife was the guillotine; the knife is the universal means of solving all knots; and along the blade of a knife lies the path of paradox - the single most worthy path of the fearless mind.
Accentuated plainness and accentuated vice ought to bring about harmony. Beauty lies in harmony, in style, whether it be the harmony of ugliness or beauty, vice or virtue.
The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy...
The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is - to bloom. (βA Story About The Most Important Thingβ)
Knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith.
You're in a bad way! Apparently, you have developed a soul.
If you are an Arabic-speaking, Greek-Orthodox going to a French school it makes you deeply sceptical if you have to listen to three different accounts of the Crusades - one from the Muslim side, one from the Greek side and one from the Catholic side.
I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.
True virtue never appears so lovely as when it is most oppressed; and the divine excellency of real Christianity is never exhibited with such advantage as when under the greatest trials; then it is that true faith appears much more precious than gold, and upon this account is "found to praise and honour and glory.
It's a cruel season that makes you get ready for bed while it's light out.
I am optimistic when I consider the spiritual dimension which the scientist's discipline forces him to ignore.
There is a corollary to the conception of being too proud to fight. It is that the humble have to do most of the fighting.
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