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The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

— Thomas Huxley

A hammer poised above a ceramic pot filled with brass nails, with loose nails beside it on a plum-gray surface.
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Behind the line May contain spoilers.

Our reading

An editorial interpretation.

The speaker places action above knowledge as life's ultimate purpose. The short contrast gives doing the final emphasis without explaining what actions are meant. One reading challenges the sufficiency of understanding alone, asking that life be judged through something beyond what is known.

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