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To pin your hopes upon the future is to consign those hopes to a hypothesis, which is to say, a nothingness. Here and now is what we must contend with.
Angela Carter
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the importance of living in the present rather than solely placing hope in the uncertain future.

Angela Carter's quote suggests that relying on the future is akin to depending on an unproven theory, deeming it ultimately empty. She advocates for a focus on the present moment, highlighting the significance of dealing with current realities instead of getting lost in what might come.

Themes

PresentFutureHopeRealitiesPhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about mindfulness and living in the moment.

More from Angela Carter

She stands and moves within the invisible pentacle of her own virginity. She is an unbroken egg: she is a sealed vessel; she has inside her a magic space the entrance to which is shut tight with a plug of membrane; she is a closed system; she does not know how to shiver.
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Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.
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Those are the voices of my brothers, darling; I love the company of wolves.
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For most of human history, 'literature,' both fiction and poetry, has been narrated, not written β€” heard, not read. So fairy tales, folk tales, stories from the oral tradition, are all of them the most vital connection we have with the imaginations of the ordinary men and women whose labor created our world.
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Iconic clothing has been secularized. . . . A guardsman in a dress uniform is ostensibly an icon of aggression; his coat is red as the blood he hopes to shed. Seen on a coat-hanger, with no man inside it, the uniform loses all its blustering significance and, to the innocent eye seduced by decorative colour and tactile braid, it is as abstract in symbolic information as a parasol to an Eskimo. It becomes simply magnificent.
Angela CarterRead
I haven't changed much, over the years. I use less adjectives, now, and have a kinder heart, perhaps.
Angela CarterRead

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A little wisdom, now and then

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