We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
A map such as that one is worth many hundreds, and as luck will have it, thousands of dollars. But more than this, it is a remembrance of that time before our planet was so small. When this map was made, I thought, you could live without knowing where you were not living.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the value of maps not only as tools for navigation but as symbols of a time when the world felt vast and unexplored.
Jonathan Safran Foer highlights the significance of maps as more than mere geographical tools; they serve as reminders of a bygone era when the world felt larger and more mysterious. This nostalgia emphasizes how advancements in technology have transformed our understanding of the world, allowing us to navigate it effortlessly, but perhaps at the cost of losing the sense of wonder and discovery that comes from exploring the unknown.
Themes
MapsNostalgiaExplorationDiscoveryValueWorld
In practice
Example use cases
During a presentation on the importance of exploration in understanding our world.
More from Jonathan Safran Foer
All quotes →Memory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled. Each second was two hundred yards, to be walked, crawled. You couldn't see the next hour, it was so far in the distance. Tomorrow was over the horizon, and would take an entire day to reach.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
She was not crying Which surprised me very much But I understand now That she had found places For her melancholy That were behind more masks Than only her eyes
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
A few weeks after the worst day, I started writing lots of letters. I don't know why, but it was one of the only things that made my boots lighter.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
Similar quotes
The time has come for people of reason to say: Enough is Enough! Religious faith discourages independent thought, it's divisive and it's dangerous.
Richard DawkinsRead
When you invest in something for so long and you stop and have nothing to fill that space, it can be more of a crisis of identity.
Maya MooreRead
The exit is usually where the entrance was.
Stanislaw Jerzy LecRead
[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government.
Laurence TribeRead
Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?
Kurt VonnegutRead
Men exist for the sake of one another.
Marcus AureliusRead