The true reality of things is not important. What's important is what people believe.

The expression “The true reality of things is not important. What's important is what people believe.” is Tørk Hviid’s statement about the power of collective belief. In the final exchange over the Stone of Gela Alta, he argues that anticipation can make the stone seem alive and consequential regardless of what it actually is, shifting attention from scientific truth to the forces belief will unleash.

Context and Speaker

Tørk makes the claim while discussing the stone’s significance. His voice carries a teasing undertone, and Smilla understands him just before he dismisses the question of the stone’s objective reality. The expression is therefore not offered as an abstract maxim alone: it is part of Tørk’s explanation of how the discovery will be received and used.

Belief and the Stone

Tørk invokes Belgian chemist Ilya Prigogine, who received the Nobel Prize in 1977 for his work on dissipative structures. He says Prigogine and his students had been pursuing the idea that life originated from inorganic substances irradiated with energy, and presents those ideas as having prepared the way for the stone’s reception. People are already waiting for it; their belief and anticipation, Tørk argues, will make it real and alive to them, whatever its true nature.

The Parasite and Public Meaning

When Smilla asks about the Arctic worm, Tørk predicts that speculative journalists will describe it as a significant stage in an encounter among the stone, inorganic life, and higher organisms. He expects a range of conclusions but treats none as decisive. The expression thus links the stone and the parasite not through a settled scientific explanation, but through the stories people will construct around them.

Consequences of the Maxim

Tørk’s emphasis finally falls on the fear and hope that belief will release. The claim does not establish that the stone is alive or resolve the parasite’s nature; it distinguishes those unanswered questions from the social consequences of expectation. In the novel’s closing confrontation, the maxim gives belief a practical force: what people anticipate can shape the response to the stone even when its material reality remains uncertain.