A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick -- a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.
Neil GaimanRead
All we have to believe with is our senses, the tools we use to perceive the world: our sight, our touch, our memory. If they lie to us, then nothing can be trusted. And even if we do not believe, then still we cannot travel in any other way than the road our senses show us; and we must walk that road to the end.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our senses are our only means to understand the world, and if they mislead us, our perception of reality is flawed.
In this quote, Neil Gaiman conveys the idea that our senses are the fundamental tools through which we interpret the world around us. He emphasizes that if our senses deceive us, it becomes impossible to trust anything, leading to an existential dilemma where our understanding and navigation of life depend entirely on the reliability of these sensory inputs. Gaiman highlights the inevitability of using our senses to traverse life, even if we question their validity, suggesting a deep connection between perception and reality.
Themes
SensesPerceptionRealityTrustLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of reality, this quote can illustrate the importance of sensory perception.
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As a teenager I wrote to R.A. Lafferty. And he responded, too, with letters that were like R.A. Lafferty short stories, filled with elliptical answers to straight questions and simple answers to complicated ones.
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Nothing’s changed. You’ll go home. You’ll be bored. You’ll be ignored. No one will listen to you, really listen to you. You’re too clever and too quiet for them to understand. They don’t even get your name right.
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I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend...I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend.
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