I am Ubik. Before the universe was, I am. I made the suns. I made the worlds. I created the lives and the places they inhabit; I move them here, I put them there. They go as I say, then do as I tell them. I am the word and my name is never spoken, the name which no one knows. I am called Ubik, but that is not my name. I am. I shall always be.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes a divine or powerful presence that shapes existence and reality.
Philip K. Dick's quote explores themes of creation, existence, and the nature of reality, portraying a being named Ubik that embodies omnipotence. It suggests that this entity is the origin of all things and reflects on the complexities of identity, with Ubik representing a deeper truth that transcends conventional names and definitions, symbolizing an eternal and all-encompassing force that governs the universe.
In practice
During a philosophical discussion on the nature of existence and divinity.
We are living in a computer-programmed reality, and the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed, and some alteration in reality occurs. We have the overwhelming impression that we were reliving the present - deja vu.
Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.
On some other world, possibly it is different. Better. There are clear good and evil alternatives. Not these obscure admixtures, these blends, with no proper tool by which to untangle the components.
"Do you have information that there's an android in the cast? I'd be glad to help you, and if I were an android would I be glad to help you?" "An android," he said, "doesn't care what happens to another android. That's one of the indications we look for." "Then," Miss Luft said, "you must be an android."
The universe is information and we are stationary in it, not three dimensional and not in space or time.
A man is an angel that has gone deranged.
Understanding the simple fact that morality differs around the world, and even within societies, is the first step toward understanding your righteous mind.
I try not to speak about all the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return.
Extremism. It is an almost infallible sign — a kind of death-rattle — when a human institution is forced by its members into stressing those and only those factors which are identificatory, at the expense of others which it necessarily shares with competing institutions because human beings belong to all of them.
I was tired and crazy and rushed, and every time I boarded a plane, I wanted the plane to crash. I envied people dying of cancer. I hated my life. I was tired and bored with my job and my furniture, and I couldn’t see any way to change things. Only end them.
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
Respect for the dignity of others includes treating them as rational creatures capable of being persuadad by rational argument, even in the face of frequent evidence to the contrary.
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