We earth men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things.
Interpretation
Humanity often destroys what is beautiful and valuable.
Ray Bradbury's quote reflects a somber truth about human nature and our tendency to damage or spoil the beauty and grandeur of the world we inhabit. It suggests an inherent flaw in our approach to life and the environment, where our actions can lead to the destruction of the very wonders that inspire and bring joy to existence.
In practice
During a speech about environmental conservation, this quote can highlight the consequences of human actions.
I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)
I never went to college, so I went to the library.
There must be something in books, something we canβt imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You donβt stay for nothing.
I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
The first thing a writer should be is - excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health.
You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
I don't think it had ever occurred to me that man's supremacy is not primarily due to his brain, as most of the books would have one think. It is due to the brain's capacity to make use of the information conveyed to it by a narrow band of visible light rays. His civilization, all that he had achieved or might achieve, hung upon his ability to perceive that range of vibrations from red to violet. Without that, he was lost.
God expects but one thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you are a created being made and let God be God in you.
Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor.
Good' did not triumph. 'Evil' did not triumph. The two resolved, destroyed each other and created new 'evils', new 'goods' which slew each other in their turn.
There is no separation between mind and body... Self and other co-arise and fall away all the time.
Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting John Locke's argument.
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