"The Machine Stops" Quotes
A dystopian novella set in a future where humanity lives underground and relies on a machine for all their needs, until the machine begins to fail.
science fiction | 48 pages | Published in NaN
Quotes
You talk as if a god had made the Machine. I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that.
Beware of first-hand ideas!
The Machine is much, but it is not everything. I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you.
Man is the measure. That was my first lesson. Man's feet are the measure for distance, his hands are the measure for ownership, his body is the measure for all that is lovable and desirable and strong.
But, it is so beautiful,
It is your life that has been affected by the Machine. You are the one who is being imprisoned, not me.
The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their rooms. Seated in her armchair she spoke, while they in their armchairs heard her, fairly well, and saw her, fairly well.
The Machine does everything for us, except when it refuses.
You are beginning to worship the Machine, I say!
The Machine develops - but not on our lines. The Machine proceeds - but not to our goal. We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die.
