quote · Legacy record
She had always thought that if only people could communicate mind-to-mind, eliminating the ambiguities of language, then understanding would be perfect and there'd be no more needless conflicts. Instead she had discovered that rather than magnifying differences between people, language might just as easily soften them, minimize them, smooth things over so that people could get along even though they really didn't understand each other. The illusion of comprehension allowed people to think they were more alike than they really were. Maybe language was better.
She had always thought that if only people could communicate mind-to-mind, eliminating the ambiguities of language, then understanding would be perfect and there'd be no more needless conflicts. Instead she had discovered that rather than magnifying differences between people, language might just as easily soften them, minimize them, smooth things over so that people could get along even though they really didn't understand each other. The illusion of comprehension allowed people to think they were more alike than they really were. Maybe language was better.
Approximate author period: c. 1951 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Orson Scott Card
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1951 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 1951; activity date not established; Wikidata Q217110, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q217110 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 152045; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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