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
If only I had thought of a Kodak! I could have flashed that glimpse of the Under-world in a second, and examined it at leisure.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the desire to capture fleeting moments of insight and explore deeper dimensions of reality.
H. G. Wells expresses a longing for a tool that could instantaneously capture and allow for later examination of profound insights into the nature of existence. The metaphor of a Kodak symbolizes the wish to document and reflect on the hidden aspects of life, hinting at the complexities of our understanding of reality.
Themes
InsightRealityMomentsExplorationExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation on life’s mysteries, one could use this quote to emphasize the value of capturing moments of revelation.
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.
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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.
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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
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