Tuấn

“This is the story of a man named Neil Fisk, and how he came to love God.

...

Of course, everyone knew that Heaven was incomparably superior, but to Neil it had always seemed too remote to consider, like wealth or fame or glamour. For people like him, Hell was where you went when you died, and he saw no point in restructuring his life in hopes of avoiding that. And since God hadn't previously played a role in Neil's life, he wasn't afraid of being exiled from God. The prospect of living without interference, living in a world where windfalls and misfortunes were never by design, held no terror for him.

Now that Sarah was in Heaven, his situation had changed. Neil wanted more than anything to be reunited with her, and the only way to get to Heaven was to love God with all his heart.

...

And God sent him to Hell anyway.”
― Ted Chiang, Hell is the Absence of God

“Tôi thấy trước rằng con người sẽ buông mình cho những việc từng ngày càng bạo tàn hơn; chẳng mấy chốc tất cả những người còn lại chỉ là lính tráng và trộm cướp; tôi tặng họ lời khuyên này: Kẻ thực hiện một việc bạo tàn phải tưởng tượng mình đã hoàn thành việc đó, phải áp đặt cho mình một tương lai cũng bất khả vãn hồi như quá khứ. Và như thế tôi đi tiếp, trong khi đôi mắt tôi, đôi mắt của một kẻ đã chết, ghi nhận ngày trôi qua mà rất có thể là ngày cuối, và đêm tỏa rộng dần.”
― Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones

“It is by and from books that I’ve learned that the heavens are not humane, neither the heavens nor any man with a head on his shoulders—it’s not that men don’t wish to be humane, it just goes against common sense.”
― Bohumil Hrabal, Too Loud a Solitude

“In 1770, Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour ran aground on the coast of Queensland, Australia. While some of his men made repairs, Cook led an exploration party and met the aboriginal people. One of the sailors pointed to the animals that hopped around with their young riding in pouches, and asked an aborigine what they were called. The aborigine replied, "Kanguru." From then on Cook and his sailors referred to the animals by this word. It wasn’t until later that they learned it meant "What did you say?”
― Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others