"Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it"
About this Quote
Ende punctures the fantasy that time is a neutral, reliable substance. Calendars and clocks promise objectivity: neat grids, ticking seconds, the comfort of measurement. Then he yanks the rug out. The punch is in that modest phrase, "signifies little" - a quiet dismissal that feels almost impolite in a culture built on schedules, productivity apps, and the moral virtue of being busy.
The intent is less metaphysical than moral. Ende is arguing that lived time is made, not found. An hour is not an hour in the way a meter is a meter; it expands and collapses based on attention, fear, boredom, desire, and meaning. The subtext is a critique of industrial time: the regimented, external time of factories, schools, and offices that treats human experience as a unit to be optimized. By contrast, he smuggles in a different standard of value: what the hour feels like, and what it holds.
Context matters: Ende, best known for Momo and The Neverending Story, repeatedly writes against the theft of imagination by systems that monetize or ration it. "How we spend it" is doing double duty. It suggests agency, but also an accusation: if your days feel thin, the problem might not be the clock but the life arranged around it. The line works because it turns a banal observation - time flies - into an ethical provocation: measurement is easy; meaning is the hard work.
The intent is less metaphysical than moral. Ende is arguing that lived time is made, not found. An hour is not an hour in the way a meter is a meter; it expands and collapses based on attention, fear, boredom, desire, and meaning. The subtext is a critique of industrial time: the regimented, external time of factories, schools, and offices that treats human experience as a unit to be optimized. By contrast, he smuggles in a different standard of value: what the hour feels like, and what it holds.
Context matters: Ende, best known for Momo and The Neverending Story, repeatedly writes against the theft of imagination by systems that monetize or ration it. "How we spend it" is doing double duty. It suggests agency, but also an accusation: if your days feel thin, the problem might not be the clock but the life arranged around it. The line works because it turns a banal observation - time flies - into an ethical provocation: measurement is easy; meaning is the hard work.
Quote Details
| Topic | Time |
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