“The creature called man has a strange history. He is not of one piece, nor was he born of a single moment in time. His elementary substance is stardust almost as old as the universe.” MenMomentsUniverseBornPiecesStrangeCreaturesSubstanceMoments In TimeSingle MomOne PieceStardust Author:Loren Eiseley
“It is surely one of the curious paradoxes of history that science which professionally has little to do with faith, owes its origins to an act of faith that the universe can be rationally interpreted, and that science today is sustained by that assumption.” LittlesTodayUniverseCuriousAssumptionParadox Author:Loren Eiseley
“Animals are molded by natural forces they do not comprehend. To their minds there is no past and no future. There is only the everlasting present of a single generation, its trails in the forest, its hidden pathways in the the air and in the sea. There is nothing in the Universe more alone than Man. He has entered into the strange world of history.” MenWorldMindPastUniverseForceNaturalAnimalHistoryGenerationsAirSeaStrangeForestsEverlastingTrailsPathwaysStrange World Author:Loren Eiseley
“Some degree of withdrawal serves to nurture man's creative powers. The artist and the scientist bring out of the dark void, like the mysterious universe itself, the unique, the strange, the unexpected. Numerous observers have testified upon the loneliness of the process.” MenArtistUniverseProcessDarkCreativityCreativeLonelinessStrangeDegreesUniqueScientistMysteriousUnexpectedVoidNurtureObserversWithdrawalCreative PowerMysterious Universe Author:Loren Eiseley
“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
“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
“Man is always marveling at what he has blown apart, never at what the universe has put together, and this is his limitation.” MenTogetherUniverseLimitationMarveling Author:Loren Eiseley
“It has been said repeatedly that one can never, try as he will, get around to the front of the universe. Man is destined to see only its far side, to realize nature only in retreat.” MenTryingHas BeensSaidUniverseSidesNatureRealizingFrontsRetreatDestinedHmmmFar Side Author:Loren Eiseley
