"I grieved to think how brief the dream of the human intellect had been. It had committed suicide. It had set itself steadfastly towards comfort and ease, a balanced society with security and permanency as its watchword, it had attained its hopes—to come to this at last. Once, life and property must have reached almost absolute safety. The rich had been assured of his wealth and comfort, the toiler assured of his life and work. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem, no social question left unsolved. And a great quiet had followed. It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism. Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Chapter 10
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The Time Machine
19 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The Time Machine →
Related Quotes
"There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time. There is, howeve…"
"There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves alon…"
"Space, as our mathematicians have it, is spoken of as having three dimensions, which one may call Length, Breadth, an…"
"Professor Simon Newcomb was expounding this to the New York Mathematical Society only a month or so ago. You know how…"
"Well, I do not mind telling you I have been at work upon this geometry of Four Dimensions for some time. Some of my r…"
"Are you so sure we can move freely in Space? Right and left we can go, backward and forward freely enough, and men al…"
"We are always getting away from the present moment. Our mental existences, which are immaterial and have no dimension…"
"If I am recalling an incident very vividly I go back to the instant of its occurrence; I become absent minded, as you…"
"Long ago I had a vague inkling of a machine... That shall travel indifferently in any direction of Space and Time, as…"
"The thing the Time Traveler held in his hand was a glittering metallic framework, scarcely larger than a small clock,…"