The worst thing about the miracle of modern communications is the Pavlovian pressure it places upon everyone to communicate whenever a bell rings.
Russell BakerRead
So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty billion dollars and vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the contrast between human struggles in daily life and the extraordinary achievements possible through innovation and resources.
In this quote, Russell Baker humorously reflects on the irony of human capability. While individuals may struggle with mundane tasks and experience personal failures, they can also achieve monumental feats, such as space exploration, with the aid of technology and significant investment. This juxtaposition illustrates the complexities of human nature, where greatness and frailty coexist, suggesting that with the right tools and support, extraordinary accomplishments can become a reality.
Themes
Human CapabilitySpace ExplorationInnovationStruggleAchievement
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a speech on the achievements of humanity in technology and science.
More from Russell Baker
All quotes →Voters inclined to loathe and fear elite Ivy League schools rarely make fine distinctions between Yale and Harvard. All they know is that both are full of rich, fancy, stuck-up and possibly dangerous intellectuals who never sit down to supper in their undershirt no matter how hot the weather gets.
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When it comes to cars, only two varieties of people are possible - cowards and fools.
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Rereading A.J. Liebling carries me happily back to an age when all good journalists knew they had plenty to be modest about, and were.
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Television was the most revolutionary event of the century. Its importance was in a class with the discovery of gunpowder and the invention of the printing press, which changed the human condition for centuries afterward.
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Objects can be classified scientifically into three major categories: those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost.
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