Can you interpret this message?

Question

"Anyone can count the seeds in the apple, but no one can count the apples in the seed". I am really confused

Answer 1

Everyone can see what is blatantly obvious (how many seeds are in an apple) but nobody can look beyond that and see the hidden truth behind it (how many apples will come from each seed.)

Answer 2

The answer is very simple, yet in the grand scheme of things, it is beautifully complex.

If you open up an apple, yes you can definetly count the seeds.

But from an apple seed, a tree grows. How many apples will this seed make? How long will this tree bear fruit? No one can see into the future to count how many apples a tree will produce over the life of that tree. This is the easy answer...

The one that will blow your mind is...

That tree that comes from the seed you planted will not only make apples, but seeds as well. So from each apple, there is the potential to have many more trees, and thus one seed could make billions of apples.

What a concept! Thanks for the question!

Answer 3

Cut open an apple and count them. Easy, right?

Now, plant an apple seed in the ground and tell me how many apples will grow on the tree in the next 50 or 100 years.

Answer 4

Everyone can count the seeds in the apple, as in everyone can count, and know that they are the seeds of the apple, but then no one can count or know if the apples are in the seed, that is if the seeds would have the exact character of the apple it came from...

Probably applying to us human beings, that our children are human, but may not have the same character as us...or display an individuality that are different from us...

Answer 5

The seeds in an apple are finite - there are only that number - but the apples in a seed, which has not yet been planted, cannot be judged. The tree which arises from that seed may live for a hundred years, providing millions of apples in its time, or it may not even germinate, and produce none.
The quote then means that although you can see what's already been produced, no-one knows what may happen in the future. A companion quote to this one might be "Don't count your chickens until they're hatched."

Answer 6

The apple is developed and there are a finite number of seeds. However, each seed produces a tree and thus, countless apples.

Answer 7

im guessing it means, that you can count the seeds inside the apple, but when you plant a seed, you dont know how much fruit it will give. and you can use this in reference to people, and life. :-D

Answer 8

its about judgment and hopefulness. sort of like judging a book by its cover in a more profound sense...

the counting the seeds in the apples is like saying anyone can make a snap judgment based on the obvious. think of people living in a bad neighborhood. it doesn't take much effort to recognize and accordingly condemn those people based on the fact that they live somewhere bad they might grow up with a poor future as well.

the counting the apples in the seed is, yes, about having the perspective to make a judgemnent on potential. back to our example about the neighborhood, yes perhaps these people and kids live in a bad neighborhood, but who can for certain determine each of their worth and potential. no one can.

so in synapsis your quote says that it is pointless and more self-codemning to try to make judgments on the future of other people based on their status today because its impossible to determine the potential in something as even apple seeds.

Answer 9

i would say it means you cant count the number of apples a seed could produce if you were to plant it.

Answer 10

it simply means that you can open an apple to see how many seeds it contains but no one can tell from opening a seed how many fruit the tree would bear from it whens its grown .