# Quote — Ted Chiang, Exhalation

> Though I am long dead as you read this, explorer, I offer to you a valediction. Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have the right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.

- Author: [Ted Chiang](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang.md)
- Book: [Exhalation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation.md)
- Page: 57
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ted_Chiang#Exhalation:_Stories_(2019)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation/though-i-am-long

## More from this book

> Humans have lived alongside parrots for thousands of years, and only recently have they considered the possibility that we might be intelligent.
>
> I suppose I can’t blame them. We parrots used to think humans weren’t very bright. It’s hard to make sense of behavior that’s so different from your own.

p. 233 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation/humans-have-lived.md)

> Let me always be inquisitive, but never be suspicious.

p. 249 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation/let-me-always.md)

> When the public interest is involved, finding out what actually happened is important; justice is an essential part of the social contract, and you can’t have justice until you know the truth.

p. 190 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation/when-the-public.md)