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Loren Eiseley

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Science writer

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Famous Loren Eiseley Quotes

“In the end, science as we know it has two basic types of practitioners. One is the educated man who still has a controlled sense of wonder before the universal mystery, whether it hides in a snail's eye or within the light that impinges on that delicate organ. The second kind of observer is the extreme reductionist who is so busy stripping things apart that the tremendous mystery has been reduced to a trifle, to intangibles not worth troubling one's head about.”

KnowsMenKindHas BeensStillsTwoEndsLightEyeScienceWonderMysteryTypeUniversalBusyExtremesEducatedControlledDelicateOrgansObserversTriflesSense Of WonderSnailStrippingEducated Man
Author:Loren Eiseley
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“Nothing grows among its pinnacles; there is no shade except under great toadstools of sandstone whose bases have been eaten to the shape of wine glasses by the wind. Everything is flaking, cracking, disintegrating, wearing away in the long, inperceptible weather of time. The ash of ancient volcanic outbursts still sterilizes its soil, and its colors in that waste are the colors that flame in the lonely sunsets on dead planets.”

LongHas BeensStillsGrowsColorPlanetsWindShapesWasteLonelyBasesWineAncientGlassesWeatherFlamesSoilSunsetShadeAshesWine GlassPinnacleOutburstToadstoolsSandstone
Author:Loren Eiseley
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“Though men in the mass forget the origins of their need, they still bring wolfhounds into city apartments, where dog and man both sit brooding in wistful discomfort. The magic that gleams an instant between Argos and Odysseus is both the recognition of diversity and the need for affection across the illusions of form. It is nature's cry to homeless, far-wandering, insatiable man: "Do not forget your brethren, nor the green wood from which you sprang. To do so is to invite disaster.”

MenNeedsStillsFormForgetCitiesMagicDogCryDiversityMassIllusionGreenAffectionWoodsDisasterWanderRecognitionInstantInvitesApartmentHomelessDiscomfortBrethrenInsatiableGleamBroodingOdysseus
Author:Loren Eiseley
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“Since the first human eye saw a leaf in Devonian sandstone and a puzzled finger reached to touch it, sadness has lain over the heart of man. By this tenuous thread of living protoplasm, stretching backward into time, we are linked forever to lost beaches whose sands have long since hardened into stone. The stars that caught our blind amphibian stare have shifted far or vanished in their courses, but still that naked, glistening thread winds onward. No one knows the secret of its beginning or its end. Its forms are phantoms. The thread alone is real; the thread is life.”

KnowsMenFirstsHumansHeartLongStillsRealEndsEyeFormCoursesLostStarsSecretForeverSawsSadnessWindStonesBlindFingersCaughtNakedBeachStaringSandThreadLeafsLinkedStretchingPhantomsHardenedPuzzledHuman EyesAmphibiansSandstone
Book:The Firmament of Time: A Library of America eBook Classic
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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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“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.”

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Book:The Invisible Pyramid: A Library of America eBook Classic
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