Home / Quotes / Quote by Lewis Thomas

Quote by Lewis Thomas

“Survival, in the cool economics of biology, means simply the persistence of one's own genes in the generations to follow.”

Quote by Lewis Thomas

Book:Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony

Work

Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony

This book offers a reflective analysis of the profound impact of Mahler's Ninth Symphony on the author's life and thoughts, providing a unique perspective on the symphony's themes and composition. more

Author

Lewis Thomas was a renowned American physician, writer, and scientist. Born on November 25, 1913, and died on December 3, 1993. He was known for his contributions to medicine and scientific writing, serving as the director of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. more

You May Also Like

“Worrying is the most natural and spontaneous of all human functions.”

Humans Natural Worry Function Spontaneous

Book:A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

Source: A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

“As a species, taking all in all, we are still too young, too juvenile, to be trusted. We have spread across the face of the earth in just a few thousand years, no time at all as evolution clocks time, covering all livable parts of the planet, endangering other forms of life, and now threatening ourselves.”

Years Stills Earth Faces Form Young Planets Evolution Thousand Species Spread Clock Trusted Thousand Years Threatening Covering Juvenile

Book:Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony

Source: Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony

“Of all celestial bodies within reach or view, as far as we can see, out to the edge, the most wonderful and marvellous and mysterious is turning out to be our own planet earth. There is nothing to match it anywhere, not yet anyway.”

Body Earth Views Wonderful Planets Edges Mysterious Celestial Planet Earth Marvellous Within Reach Celestial Bodies

Book:Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony

Source: Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony

“The earliest sensation at the onset of illness, often preceding the recognition of identifiable symptoms, is apprehension. Something has gone wrong, and a glimpse of mortality shifts somewhere deep in the mind. It is the most ancient of our fears.”

Mind Gone Ancient Illness Recognition Mortality Sensations Glimpse Symptoms Apprehension

Book:Fragile Species

Source: Fragile Species

“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.”

Source: A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

“A lot of people fear death because they think that so overwhelming an experience has to be painful, but I've seen quite a few deaths, and, with one exception, I've never known anyone to undergo anything like agony. That's amazing when you think about it. I mean, how complicated the mechanism is that's being taken apart.”

People Thinking Mean Known Taken Painful Complicated Exception Overwhelming Mechanism Agony Fear Of Death

Author:Lewis Thomas

“Doctors, dressed up in one professional costume or another, have been in busy practice since the earliest records of every culture on earth. It is hard to think of a more dependable or enduring occupation, harder still to imagine any future events leading to its extinction.”

Thinking Has Beens Stills Hard Earth Culture Practice Records Imagine Events Doctors Harder Endure Busy Occupation Costumes Extinction Dressed Up Dependable Future Events

Book:Fragile Species

Source: Fragile Species

“Given the opportunity, under the right conditions, two cells from wildly different sources, a yeast cell, say, and a chicken erythrocyte, will touch, fuse, and the two nuclei will then fuse as well, and the new hybrid cell will now divide into monstrous progeny. Naked cells, lacking self-respect, do not seem to have any sense of self.”

Source: A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

“I don't want to be reincarnated, that's for sure. When you've had rewarding experiences in your life - a loving family, friends - you don't need additional reassurances that you're going to do something with a new cast of characters. I'd just as soon pass.”

Want Needs Character Casts Family Friends Reassurance Loving Family Rewarding Experiences

Author:Lewis Thomas

“I suggest that the introductory courses in science, at all levels from grade school through college, be radically revised. Leave the fundamentals, the so-called basics, aside for a while, and concentrate the attention of all students on the things that are not known.”

School Courses Levels Attention Known Students College Fundamentals Grades Basics Grades In School

Book:A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

Source: A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays