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About this quote

What does it mean?
Saving one life by taking two creates a moral imbalance that challenges reason and can break a kind person.
In plain terms
Saving one life by taking two is hard to understand and could drive someone mad.
What can you take from it?
Moral trade-offs can break the human mind.

Where it applies

  • moral dilemmas
  • warfare
  • leadership decisions

Putting it to work

  • make tough calls
  • study ethics
  • seek balance

Questions to consider

  • Is one life more valuable than two?
  • Can logic handle moral loss?

Another view

It assumes only one outcome is possible in such cases.

More from Philip Kindred Dick

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  2. We have entered a Moment when we are alone. We cannot get assistance, as before. Well, Mr. Tagomi thought, perhaps that too is good. Or can be made good. One m…

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  3. Life is short. Art, or something not life, is long, stretching out endless, like concrete worm. Flat, white, unsmoothed by any passage over or across it. Here …

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