--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: No one at the factory can remember how…" description: "\"“No one at the factory can remember how long we’ve worked here, or how old we are, yet our pace and productivity continues to increase. It seems as if ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/477/thomas-ligotti-2073_alienation_no-one-at-the-factory-can-remember-how-l_693407.png" --- # No one at the factory can remember how long we’ve worked… ![“No one at the factory can remember how long we’ve worked here, or how old we are, yet our pace and productivity continues to increase. It seems as if neither the company nor our temporary supervisor will ever be done with us. Yet we are only human beings, or at least physical beings, and one day…” quote by Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/477/thomas-ligotti-2073_alienation_no-one-at-the-factory-can-remember-how-l_693407.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/477/thomas-ligotti-2073_alienation_no-one-at-the-factory-can-remember-how-l_693407.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/477/thomas-ligotti-2073_alienation_no-one-at-the-factory-can-remember-how-l_693407.png) > ““No one at the factory can remember how long we’ve worked here, or how old we are, yet our pace and productivity continues to increase. It seems as if neither the company nor our temporary supervisor will ever be done with us. Yet we are only human beings, or at least physical beings, and one day we must die. This is the only retirement we can expect, even though none of us is looking forward to that time. For we can’t keep from wondering what might come afterward - what the company could have planned for us, and the part our temporary supervisor might play in that plan. Working at a furious pace, fitting together those small pieces of metal, helps keep our minds off such things.”” [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote reflects on relentless industrial labor, the fleeting nature of human life, and how work distracts from existential dread. **In simple terms:** Work masks our mortality and fear of the unknown. Key Takeaway Recognize the limits of work as a distraction. Themes mortality labor existential anxiety distraction Mood contemplative melancholic Type philosophical reflective When to use this quote - factory work - shift labor - personal reflection - life planning - psychological coping Key Concepts nihilism industrial alienation temporality Questions to Reflect On - How does your work shape your view of life? - Can productivity find purpose beyond distraction? A Different Perspective It may overlook the potential for meaningful work beyond mere distraction. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Alienation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/alienation/) [Fitting together](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fitting-together/) [Hopelessness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hopelessness/) [Productivity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/productivity/) [Work](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/work/) ## Related quotes > [My dad worked 12-hour shifts in the Kodak factory - I remember creeping about when he was on nights - but he was also…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-fletcher/my-dad-worked-12-hour-shifts-in-the-kodak-factory-i-remember-creeping/) [Tom Fletcher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-fletcher/) > [“When I first took this job at the factory it was not my intention to work there very long, for I once possessed higher…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/when-i-first-took-this-job-at-the-factory-it-was-not-my-intention-to/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [I used to think of two people in love like that. 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The time when Zee’s ghosts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/becky-lee-weyrich/table-sat-an-antique-ormolu-clock-its-hands-frozen-on-the-twelve-and/) [Becky Lee Weyrich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/becky-lee-weyrich/) > [I've been an acquaintance of the president Ryan Glover for some years and for a couple years we've been talking about possibilities, puzzle pieces…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ed-gordon/i-ve-been-an-acquaintance-of-the-president-ryan-glover-for-some-years/) [Ed Gordon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ed-gordon/) > [“It was as if I had thought all along I was a complete picture, and Sam had revealed that I was a puzzle, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maggie-stiefvater/it-was-as-if-i-had-thought-all-along-i-was-a-complete-picture-and-sam/) [Maggie Stiefvater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maggie-stiefvater/) > [I live in the land of delight - of just walking in the street, and the sun is shining, and I'm on my way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-steinem/i-live-in-the-land-of-delight-of-just-walking-in-the-street-and-the/) [Gloria Steinem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-steinem/) > [Fitting together is something you work at. It’s something you make happen—because you love each other.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainbow-rowell/fitting-together-is-something-you-work-at-it-s-something-you-make/) [Rainbow Rowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainbow-rowell/) > [“I studied the way the individual flowers clustered around the single stalk, their sharp points fitting together like pieces of a puzzle. Something about…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vanessa-diffenbaugh/i-studied-the-way-the-individual-flowers-clustered-around-the-single/) [Vanessa Diffenbaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vanessa-diffenbaugh/) ## More by Thomas Ligotti > [“Subsequently there ensues an epoch of complex, proliferating intrigues and conspiracies among the ranks of double agents, whose agendas become so densely intertwined that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/subsequently-there-ensues-an-epoch-of-complex-proliferating-intrigues/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The point that in the absence of birth nobody exists who can be deprived of happiness is terribly conspicuous. For optimists, this fact plays…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-point-that-in-the-absence-of-birth-nobody-exists-who-can-be/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The worst fear of the race yes, the world suddenly transformed into a senseless nightmare, horrible dissolution of things. Nothing compares, even oblivion is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-worst-fear-of-the-race-yes-the-world-suddenly-transformed-into-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“In supernatural horror stories, however, magical thinking is a completely different matter. 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Posters, signs, billboards, and leaflets of various sorts are scattered around like playing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-dismembered-limbs-of-dolls-and-puppets-are-strewn-about/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“As I drifted along with my bodiless invisibility, I felt myself more and more becoming an empty, floating shape, seeing without being seen and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/as-i-drifted-along-with-my-bodiless-invisibility-i-felt-myself-more/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The lessons in measurement of cloacal forces. Time as a flow of sewage. The excrement of space, scatology of creation. The voiding of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-lessons-in-measurement-of-cloacal-forces-time-as-a-flow-of-sewage/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [And the worst possible thing we could know — worse than knowing of our descent from a mass of microorganisms — is that we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/and-the-worst-possible-thing-we-could-know-worse-than-knowing-of-our/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“Only catatonics and coma patients can persevere in a dignified withdrawal from life’s rattle and hum. Without a “yes” in our hearts, nothing would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/only-catatonics-and-coma-patients-can-persevere-in-a-dignified/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) [Explore all 187 Thomas Ligotti quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) ## More Alienation quotes > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Everyone who lived in high-up, magical places must feel the same way. 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Each is fulfilled in the other: the Great Self is fulfilled in the individual self,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/the-universe-must-be-experienced-as-the-great-self-each-is-fulfilled/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [“We are accustomed to think of ourselves as a great democratic body, linked by common ties of blood and language, united indissolubly by all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-miller/we-are-accustomed-to-think-of-ourselves-as-a-great-democratic-body/) [Henry Miller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-miller/) > [“Alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionary.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jenny-holzer/alienation-produces-eccentrics-or-revolutionary/) [Jenny Holzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jenny-holzer/) > [“A consequence of this alienation of humans from their own nature is that they are also alienated from each other. 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Vance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-d-vance-2/) [Browse all 392 Alienation quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/alienation/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“No one at the factory can remember how long we’ve worked here, or how old we are, yet our pace and productivity continues to increase. It seems as if neither the company nor our temporary supervisor will ever be done with us. Yet we are only human beings, or at least physical beings, and one day we must die. This is the only retirement we can expect, even though none of us is looking forward to that time. For we can’t keep from wondering what might come afterward - what the company could have planned for us, and the part our temporary supervisor might play in that plan. 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