Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the paradox of human existence in relation to the vast ocean, highlighting our limitations and disconnect with nature.
Ambrose Bierce's quote encapsulates the irony of human life: we inhabit a world filled with natural wonders, like the ocean, yet we are fundamentally unadapted to many of its elements. While the ocean occupies a significant part of our planet, we, as land-dwelling beings without gills, can only engage with it on a limited basis. This statement invites contemplation about human adaptation and our relationship with the environment.
In practice
This quote can be used in a presentation on environmental awareness to highlight our tenuous connection to nature.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are - or as we are conditioned to see it.
...the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword." "...a ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.
You fall out of your mother's womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave.
Do ask yourself why you, the individual, exist, and if you can get no other answer try for once to justify the meaning of your existence as it were a posteriori by setting before yourself an aim, a goal, a 'to this end', an exalted and noble 'to this end'.
Learning to weep, learning to keep vigil, learning to wait for the dawn. Perhaps this is what it means to be human.
I think that knowledge enslaves us, that at the base of all knowledge there is a servility, the acceptation of a way of life wherein each moment has meaning only in relation to another or others that will follow it.
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