I perceived that I was on a little round grain of rock and metal, filmed with water and with air, whirling in sunlight and darkness. And on the skin of that little grain all the swarms of men, generation by generation, had lived in labour and blindness, with intermittent joy and intermittent lucidity of spirit. And all their history, with its folk-wanderings, its empires, its philosophies, its proud sciences, its social revolutions, its increasing hunger for community, was but a flicker in one day of the lives of the stars. Olaf Stapledon
About This Quote

A quote from the novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” As the title suggests, the book is about the search for the ultimate meaning of life. The reader is led on a journey through space and time as he tries to understand the meaning of life. The book ends with a simple statement: “The answer, as ever, is 42.”

Source: Star Maker

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More Quotes By Olaf Stapledon
  1. Philosophy is an amazing tissue of really fine thinking and incredible, puerile mistakes. It's like one of those rubber 'bones' they give dogs to chew, damned good for the mind's teeth, but as food - no bloody good at all.
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  4. For the former, activity, any kind of activity, was an end in itself; for the latter, activity was but a progress toward the true end, which was rest, and peace of mind. Action was to be undertaken only when equilibrium was disturbed.
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