(He) mourned mankind, and the blindness of men, who thought that the Kosmos had rules and limits that would shelter them from their own freedom. There were no shelters. There were no final purposes. Futility, and freedom, were Absolute

Bruce Sterling
About This Quote

In the novel The Stars My Destination , by Alfred Bester, the main character, Valentine Michael Smith, is a man with a singular goal: to avoid death by finding a way to travel into space. In this quote, Bester speaks of a world where everything is out in the open, and where no person can hide their true feelings. This world is a Kosmos, or a universe. In this world, there are no rules or limits to protect people from their own freedom.

Everything is free to be explored and experienced. There are no shelters. No one is hiding anything from anyone else.

In this quote, Bester speaks of the futility of life and how it can only have meaning through the discovery of our own freedom. He says that we have no security from ourselves or from death, but that we have absolute freedom to be whatever we want to be.

Source: Schismatrix

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