'I hear my father-in-law's response: 'Naive, dreaming Adam. He who would do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a world of pain & his family must pay it along with him! & only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!' Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?' (p.529-- final passage)
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The passage contrasts a cynical view of individual insignificance with a counterargument that the collective ocean is made of many drops.
- In plain terms
- Some say one life does not matter, but the world is made of many small lives.
- What can you take from it?
- Individual actions matter because they form the whole.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does one life matter?
- Are we part of something larger?
Another view
One drop may not significantly change the ocean on its own.
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