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Loren Eiseley

Loren Eiseley Quotes

Science writer

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“Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war... Mostly the animals understand their roles, but man, by comparison, seems troubled by a message that, it is often said, he cannot quite remember or has gotten wrong... Bereft of instinct, he must search continually for meanings... Man was a reader before he became a writer, a reader of what Coleridge once called the mighty alphabet of the universe.”

MenLongSaidWarSeemsRememberUniverseWalksAnimalRolesReaderMessagesInstinctShoesAncientBeachComparisonUrgesRefugeeGarmentsAlphabetHomesickTimberSeaweedBereft
Author:Loren Eiseley
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“Out of the choked Devonian waters emerged sight and sound and the music that rolls invisible through the composer's brain. They are there still in the ooze along the tideline, though no one notices. The world is fixed, we say: fish in the sea, birds in the air. But in the mangrove swamps by the Niger, fish climb trees and ogle uneasy naturalists who try unsuccessfully to chase them back to the water. There are things still coming ashore.”

WorldTryingStillsSoundWaterBrainAirTreeSeaBirdSightFishesInvisibleFixedClimbsComposerUneasySwampsNaturalistSight And SoundFish In The SeaNigerSea Birds
Book:The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature
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“Lights come and go in the night sky. Men, troubled at last by the things they build, may toss in their sleep and dream bad dreams, or lie awake while the meteors whisper greenly overhead. But nowhere in all space or on a thousand worlds will there be men to share our loneliness.”

MenWorldMayDreamLightLastsLyingNightSleepSpaceSkyShareLonelinessThousandAwakeBe A ManComes And GoesNight SkyTossOverheadMeteorsBad DreamSleep And Dream
Book:The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature
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“Man would not be man if his dreams did not exceed his grasp... If I remember the sunflower forest it is because from its hidden reaches man arose. The green world is his sacred center. In moments of sanity he must still seek refuge there.”

IfsMenWorldStillsMomentsDreamRememberSacredGreenForestsSanityRefugeExceedSunflowerGreen World
Book:The Invisible Pyramid: A Library of America eBook Classic
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“Of all the unexpected qualities of an unexpected universe, the sheer organizing power of animal and plant metabolism is one of the most remarkable. . . . Where it reaches its highest development, in the human mind, we forget it completely. . . . So important does nature regard this unseen combustion . . . that a starving man's brain will be protected to the last while his body is steadily consumed.”

MenMindHumansDoeImportantBodyLastsUniverseNatureForgetAnimalBrainQualityDevelopmentHighestRegardPlantUnexpectedRemarkableHuman MindProtectedSheerUnseenConsumedForget ItStarvingMetabolismCombustion
Author:Loren Eiseley
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“It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist for example Vincent Van Gogh, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man. If he is more than a popular story-teller it may take humanity a generation to absorb and grow accustomed to the new geography with which the scientist or artist presents us. Even then, perhaps only the more imaginative and literate may accept him. Subconsciously the genius is feared as an image breaker; frequently he does not accept the opinions of the mass, or man's opinion of himself.”

IfsMenMayDoeArtStoriesArtistHumanityGrowsAcceptingOpinionGenerationsExampleGeniusMassOrdinaryScientistTragedyAccustomedGreat ArtImaginativeVansGeographyGreat ArtistOrdinary ManGreat Scientist
Author:Loren Eiseley
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“Once in a lifetime, perhaps, one escapes the actual confines of the flesh. Once in a lifetime, if one is lucky, one so merges with sunlight and air and running water that whole eons, the eons that mountains and deserts know, might pass in a single afternoon without discomfort.”

IfsKnowsWholeMightRunningWaterWalksAirJourneyWalkingLuckyMountainLifetimeFleshWanderDesertAfternoonHikingSunlightDiscomfortTrekkingStrollingSaunteringOnce In A LifetimeRunning Water
Book:The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature
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“Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war.”

LongWarWalksSeaOceanShoesAncientBeachUrgesRefugeeGarmentsHomesickTimberSeaweedOcean SeaBereftOceans And SeasSeashoreBeach And OceanBeach OceanSea And SkySea And BeachAvengingWalking On The Beach
Book:The Unexpected Universe: A Library of America eBook Classic
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