Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.
H. G. WellsRead
I stood staring, not as yet realising that this was death leaping from man to man in that little distant crowd.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the realization of death's omnipresence and its impact on humanity.
In this quote, H. G. Wells illustrates a moment of profound awareness where the speaker observes a crowd, not yet fully grasping that death is an inevitable force connecting all human beings. It serves as a contemplation on the fragility of life and how death can suddenly invade moments of normalcy, prompting a deeper reflection on existence and mortality.
Themes
DeathHumanityMortalityExistenceAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
During a memorial service, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of recognizing the fragility of life.
More from H. G. Wells
All quotes →He spares no resource in telling of his dead inventions... Bare verbs he rarely tolerates. He splits infinitives and fills them up with adverbial stuffing. He presses the passing colloquialism into his service. His vast paragraphis sweat and struggle; the
H. G. WellsRead
It [a new world order] needs only that the governments of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Russia should get together in order to set up an effective control of currency, credit, production, and distribution – that is to say, an effective ‘dictatorship of prosperity,’ for the whole world. The other sixty odd States would have to join in or accommodate themselves to the over-ruling decisions of these major Powers.
H. G. WellsRead
Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
H. G. WellsRead
But I was too restless to watch long; I'm too Occidental for a long vigil. I could work at a problem for years, but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours - that's another matter.
H. G. WellsRead
The greatest task of democracy, its ritual and feast - is choice.
H. G. WellsRead
Similar quotes
Our identities really are a constant negotiation between the story we tell about ourselves and the narrative our societies like to recite.
Thomas Chatterton WilliamsRead
The unrealistic nature of these tales (which narrowminded rationalists object to) is an important device, because it makes obvious that the fairy tales’ concern is not useful information about the external world, but the inner process taking place in an individual.
Bruno BettelheimRead
Was it pretty? Your country. . .your land?" "It was beautiful," the gunslinger said. "There were fields and forests and rivers and mists in the morning. But that's only pretty. My mother used to say that the only real beauty is order and love and light.
Stephen KingRead
It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
AristotleRead
There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.
Nelson MandelaRead
The democratic youth lives along day by day, gratifying the desire that occurs to him, at one time drinking and listening to the flute, at another downing water and reducing, now practicing gymnastic, and again idling and neglecting everything; and sometimes spending his time as though he were occupied in philosophy.
PlatoRead