Quotessence
Home / Authors / Lewis Thomas
Lewis Thomas

Lewis Thomas Quotes

Physician

Filter quotes by topic

AllScienceHumansIfsEarthMindThinkingWayCellsKnowsStillsSeemsSpeciesCenturyGenesNeedsTryingBrainCreaturesHuman BeingsLanguage

Famous Lewis Thomas Quotes

“The need to make music, and to listen to it, is universally expressed by human beings. I cannot imagine, even in our most primitive times, the emergence of talented painters to make cave paintings without there having been, near at hand, equally creative people making song. It is, like speech, a dominant aspect of human biology.”

PeopleNeedsHumansHandsSongHuman BeingsCreativeImaginePaintingSpeechAspectPainterBiologyPrimitiveDominantCavesCreative PeopleEmergenceCave Paintings
Book:A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays
Create image

“Animals, even plants, lie to each other all the time, and we could restrict the research to them, putting off the real truth about ourselves for the several centuries we need to catch our breath. What is it that enables certain flowers to resemble nubile insects, or opossums to play dead, or female fireflies to change the code of their flashes in order to attract, and then eat, males of a different species?”

NeedsDifferentRealPlayTruthScienceLyingCertainOrderAnimalCenturyFlowerResearchFemaleBreathsPlantSpeciesMalesCodeFlashInsectsFireflyReal Truth
Book:Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony
Create image

“Exclamation points are the most irritating of all. Look! they say, look at what I just said! How amazing is my thought! It is like being forced to watch someone else's small child jumping up and down crazily in the center of the living room shouting to attract attention. If a sentence really has something of importance to say, something quite remarkable, it doesn't need a mark to point it out. And if it is really, after all, a banal sentence needing more zing, the exclamation point simply emphasizes its banality!”

IfsNeedsWritingLooksChildrenSaidRoomsAttentionWatchesImportanceMarkSentencesRemarkableMy ThoughtsJumpingUp And DownShoutingLiving RoomIrritatingSmall ChildBanalityExclamationExclamation PointsZing
Book:A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays
Create image

“The commas are the most useful and usable of all the stops. It is highly important to put them in place as you go along. If you try to come back after doing a paragraph and stick them in the various spots that tempt you you will discover that they tend to swarm like minnows into sorts of crevices whose existence you hadn't realized and before you know it the whole long sentence becomes immobilized and lashed up squirming in commas. Better to use them sparingly, and with affection, precisely when the need for each one arises, nicely, by itself.”

IfsKnowsNeedsWritingTryingLongImportantWholeUseExistenceSticksAffectionVariousSentencesAriseSpotsParagraphSwarmsCreviceMinnows
Book:A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays
Create image