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Ursula Goodenough Quotes

Professor

Ursula Goodenough is a renowned American biologist born on March 16, 1943. She has made significant contributions to the fields of molecular biology and developmental biology, particularly in the area of plant gene expression regulation.

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All Humans Stories Evolution Miracle Planets Thinking Understanding Being True Creatures Doe

Famous Ursula Goodenough Quotes

“It seems far simpler to go ahead and say that the epic is a fantastic myth, that happens to be true of the material Universe, that other myths are true in terms of their cultural meaning, and that there's absolutely no problem with holding more than one story, just as there's no problem with viewing the sunset in terms of planetary rotation and spectra and nuclear fusions one moment and as visual splendor the next.”

Moments Stories Problem Seems Happens Universe Next Term Materials Myth Nuclear Being True Fantastic Visuals Sunset Epic No Problem Splendor Fusion Rotation Nuclear Fusion

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“The evolution of the cosmos invokes in me a sense of mystery; the increase in biodiversity invokes the response of humility; and an understanding of the evolution of death offers me helpful ways to think about my own death.”

Thinking Way Understanding My Own Mystery Humility Evolution Offers Increase Response Cosmos Helpful Invoke Biodiversity

Book:The Sacred Depths of Nature

Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature

“Human memory, they say, is like a coat closet: The most enduring outcome of a formal education is that it creates rows of coat hooks so that later on, when you come upon a new piece of information, you have a hook to hang it on. Without a hook, the new information falls on the floor.”

Humans Fall Memories Pieces Information Endure Outcomes Formal Coats Closets Hook Formal Education New Information

Book:The Sacred Depths of Nature

Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature

“Life from nonlife, like wine from water, has long been considered a miracle wrought by gods or God. Now it is seen to be the near-inevitable consequence of our thermal and chemical circumstances.”

Long Water Circumstances Consequence Miracle Wine Inevitable Chemicals Thermal

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“The religious naturalist is provisioned with tales of natural emergence that are, to my mind, far more magical than traditional miracles. Emergence is inherent in everything that is alive, allowing our yearning for supernatural miracles to be subsumed by our joy in the countless miracles that surround us.”

Mind Joy Natural Religious Alive Miracle Tales Traditional Allowing Surround Yearning Inherent Emergence Naturalist

Book:The Sacred Depths of Nature

Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature

“The biochemistry and biophysics are the notes required for life; they conspire, collectively, to generate the real unit of life, the organism. The intermediate level, the chords and tempos, has to do with how the biochemistry and biophysics are organized, arranged, played out in space and time to produce a creature who grows and divides and is.”

Real Grows Space Levels Produce Creatures Notes Organized Divides Organisms Units Time And Space Chords Tempo Biochemistry

Book:The Sacred Depths of Nature

Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature

“I have come to understand that the self, my self, is inherently sacred. By virtue of its own improbability, its own miracle, its own emergence. And so I lift up my head, and I bear my own witness, with affection and tenderness and respect. And in so doing, I sanctify myself with my own grace.”

Self My Own Virtue Grace Bears Miracle Sacred Affection Witness Lifts Tenderness Emergence Sanctify Improbability

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“We are embedded in the great evolutionary story of planet Earth, the spare, elegant process of mutation and selection and bricolage. And this means that we are anything but alone.”

Mean Stories Earth Process Planets Spares Selection Elegant Planet Earth Embedded Mutation

Book:The Sacred Depths of Nature

Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature

“Reverence is the sense that there is something larger than the self, larger even than the human, to which one accords respect and awe and assent.”

Humans Self Awe Reverence Accord

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“The Big Bang, the formation of sars and planets, the origin and evolution of life on this planet, the advent of human consciousness and the resultant evolution of cultures - this is the story, the one story, that has the potential to unite us, because it happens to be true.”

Humans Stories Bigs Happens Culture Consciousness Planets Evolution Being True Bangs Formation Advent Human Consciousness Sars Evolution Of Life

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“The Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum can summarize: "In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught."”

“Early humans, bursting with questions about Nature but with limited understanding of its dynamics, explained things in terms of supernatural persons and person-animals who delivered the droughts and floods and plagues. . . .”

Humans Persons Religion Understanding Term Animal Flood Plague Dynamics Drought Bursting

Book:The Sacred Depths of Nature

Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature

“It is as we respond to the understandings and feelings inherent in . . . art that we acquire much of our truth, much of our nobility and grace, and much of our pleasure.”

Art Feelings Understanding Pleasure Grace Acquire Inherent Nobility

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“The concept of an independent "spiritual realm" does not augment, for me, the magic of the mystical dimension, whereas to think of this dimension as emergent from our minds makes it all the more wondrous to be a human.”

Thinking Mind Humans Doe Spiritual Magic Concepts Independent Realms Dimensions Mystical Wondrous

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“Human consensus does not generate reality. Were it able to do so, the Sun would have taken to orbiting the Earth some time ago.”

Humans Doe Reality Able Earth Sun Taken Consensus

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“Perhaps we should all settle down and think about what's good in the world and what we want to do here. If we find this planet and its history and its story to be sacred, let's preserve and nourish it, and then we can go home at night and say whatever prayers we choose.”

Ifs Thinking World Want Should Stories Home Night Prayer Planets Down And Sacred Preserves Settling Settling Down Good In The World

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“The most reliable joy is to be out of doors, to be a creature among other creatures. I find it very restful.”

Joy Doors Creatures Restful

Author:Ursula Goodenough

“When the responses elicited by the Epic of Evolution are gathered together several religious principles emerge that I can believe, serve as a framework for a global Ethos.”

Believe I Can Together Religious Principles Evolution Response Epic Framework Ethos

Book:The Sacred Depths of Nature

Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature

About the Author

Born: March 16, 1943
Known for: Professor
Quotes: 18

Books & Sources

The Sacred Depths of NatureRelated source material

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