"There's got to be more to life than just living," Foyle said to the robot. "Then find it for yourself, sir. Don't ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts." "Why can't we all move forward together?" "Because you're all different. You're not lemmings. Some must lead, and hope that the rest will follow." "Who leads?" "The men who must... driven men, compelled men." "Freak men." "You're all freaks, sir. But you always have been freaks. Life is a freak. That's its hope and glory."
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of finding personal meaning in life and accepting the individuality in our pursuits.
In this dialogue, the characters explore the notion that life should be about seeking deeper meaning rather than merely existing. The robot's response suggests that individuals have the power to discover their purpose and that life's richness comes from its inherent unpredictability and diversity. The idea that some individuals are destined to lead while others follow reflects the complexities of human nature and how ambition and drive shape our destinies.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one could quote this to inspire others to seek deeper meaning in their lives.
This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living and hard dying... but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice... but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.
Don't ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts.
That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person.
I had displeased the jacobins by blaming their aristocratic usurpation of legitimate powers; the priests of all sorts by claiming religious liberty; the anarchists by repressing them; and the conspirators by rejecting their offers.
The most consequential change in man's view of the world, of living nature and of himself came with the introduction, over a period of some 100 years beginning only in the 18th century, of the idea of change itself, of change over periods of time: in a word, of evolution.
We are all the judges and the judged, victims of the casual malice and fantasy of others, and ready sources of fantasy and malice in our turn. And if we are sometimes accused of sins of which we are innocent, are there not also other sins of which we are guilty and of which the world knows nothing?
The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself.
In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.
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