What, then, is this blue sky, which certainly does exist, and which veils from us the stars during the day?
Camille FlammarionRead
The universe is so immense that it appears immutable, and that the duration of a planet such as that of the earth is only a chapter, less than that, a phrase, less still, only a word of the universe’s history.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the vastness of the universe and the fleeting nature of human existence in comparison.
Camille Flammarion's quote emphasizes the immense scale of the universe, portraying our planet's existence as a mere fraction of cosmic history. It invites contemplation about our place within the grand tapestry of time and space, suggesting that human life is transient when viewed against the backdrop of the universe's unimaginable duration.
In practice
In a lecture about the universe's vastness and our fleeting existence, this quote could highlight our place in time.
What, then, is this blue sky, which certainly does exist, and which veils from us the stars during the day?
Although its light is wide and great, the Moon is reflected in a puddle one inch wide. The whole Moon and the entire sky is reflected in one dew drop on the grass.
For this is the journey that men and women make, to find themselves. If they fail in this, it doesn't matter much else what they find.
War is the suicide of humanity because it kills the heart and kills love.
Far too often, when we think we are frightened by mystery, the fact is that we are haunted by history.
The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a patter of systems.
It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
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