(main character Oskar is talking to and old man who lives in the apartment above him. The old man has a collection of people from history who are significant and has a card for each with one word to describe them)
Mr. Black (older man): "What makes you think it is good to be in here?"
Oskar: "Because it means you're biographically significant""
Mr. Black: " 9 out of 10 significant people in the world have to do with money or war"
This really resonated with me because one of my fears is that I will be forgotten and I am scared that when I die people will forget about me, thus feeling like my life is unsignificant. This quote gives me a lot of perspective.
(In this next quote Oskar is having a conversation with his dad about how he wants to be remembered in life and after)
Oskar: "Im talking about the problem of how insignificant we are"
Dad: "Well what would happen if a plane dropped you in the middle of the Sahara desert and you picked up a single grain of sand with a pair of tweezers and moved it 1 millimeter-- What would that mean?"
Oskar: "That I moved a grain of sand?"
Dad: "which would mena you changed the Sahara desert."
Oskar: "So?...."
Dad: "So! The Sahara is a vast desert and it has existed for a million years-And you changed it"
Oskar: "Which means?"
Dad: "If you hadn't done it, human history would've been one way"
Oskar: "I changed the course of human history!!"
This, like the 1st quote was one that made me feel that when I am worrying about being so insignificant in the grand scheme of things there are little ways that I could change the course of human history :)
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