That final quote, along with Cabal’s final conversation with Passworthy in the movie version of “Things to Come” has always been a favorite. The below conversation ending that film is as good a description of Wellsianism as any, and for myself has a kind of religious stature, like I imagine a psalm may be for those so inclined. I even had the final line engraved on some of my past smartphones and likely will have it inscribed on a ring sometime soon.
The ending of “Things to Come”, 1936:
Raymond Passworthy: Oh, God, is there ever to be any age of happiness? Is there never to be any rest?
Oswald Cabal: Rest enough for the individual man -- too much, and too soon -- and we call it death. But for Man, no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First this little planet with its winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him and at last out across immensity to the stars. And when he has conquered all the deeps of space and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning.
Raymond Passworthy: But... we're such little creatures. Poor humanity's so fragile, so weak. Little... little animals.
Oswald Cabal: Little animals. If we're no more than animals, we must snatch each little scrap of happiness and live and suffer and pass, mattering no more than all the other animals do or have done. Is it this? Or that? [gesturing at the stars] All the universe? Or nothingness? Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?
That final quote, along with Cabal’s final conversation with Passworthy in the movie version of “Things to Come” has always been a favorite. The below conversation ending that film is as good a description of Wellsianism as any, and for myself has a kind of religious stature, like I imagine a psalm may be for those so inclined. I even had the final line engraved on some of my past smartphones and likely will have it inscribed on a ring sometime soon.
The ending of “Things to Come”, 1936:
Raymond Passworthy: Oh, God, is there ever to be any age of happiness? Is there never to be any rest?
Oswald Cabal: Rest enough for the individual man -- too much, and too soon -- and we call it death. But for Man, no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First this little planet with its winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him and at last out across immensity to the stars. And when he has conquered all the deeps of space and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning.
Raymond Passworthy: But... we're such little creatures. Poor humanity's so fragile, so weak. Little... little animals.
Oswald Cabal: Little animals. If we're no more than animals, we must snatch each little scrap of happiness and live and suffer and pass, mattering no more than all the other animals do or have done. Is it this? Or that? [gesturing at the stars] All the universe? Or nothingness? Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?