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In a very real sense, we are shipwrecked passengers on a doomed planet. Yet, even in a shipwreck, human decencies and human values do not necessarily vanish, and we must make the most of them. We shall go down, but let it be in a manner to which we may look forward as worthy of our dignity.
Norbert Wiener
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Even in dire circumstances, human values and dignity remain essential.

This quote by Norbert Wiener suggests that despite our precarious situation on Earth, described metaphorically as a 'doomed planet,' we should not lose sight of our humanity and the values that define us. Even as we face inevitable challenges and potential doom, it is crucial to uphold decency and dignity, emphasizing positivity and purpose in how we conduct our lives and face our fate.

Themes

Human ValuesDignityDecencyShipwreckLife Challenges

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about environmental issues, one might quote this to highlight the importance of maintaining our values in the face of global challenges.

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The Advantage is that mathematics is a field in which one's blunders tend to show very clearly and can be corrected or erased with a stroke of the pencil. It is a field which has often been compared with chess, but differs from the latter in that it is only one's best moments that count and not one's worst. A single inattention may lose a chess game, whereas a single successful approach to a problem, among many which have been relegated to the wastebasket, will make a mathematician's reputation.
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We have modified our environment so radically that we must now modify ourselves to exist in this new environment.
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We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves. _x000D_ A pattern is a message, and may be transmitted as a message.
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Let us remember that the automatic machine is the precise economic equivalent of slave labor. Any labor which competes with slave labor must accept the economic consequences of slave labor.
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