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Quote by Lewis Thomas

“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.”

Quote by Lewis Thomas

Book:A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

Work

A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

This book is a compilation of essays that delve into the intricate world of cells, examining their role in biological processes and their importance in the study of life sciences. The essays cover a range of topics, from the fundamental functions of cells to their implications in medical research and evolutionary biology. 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

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“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

“In the fields I know best, among the life sciences, it is required that the most expert and sophisticated minds be capable of changing course - often with a great lurch - every few years.”

Knows Years Mind Courses Fields Capable Experts Sophisticated Changing Course

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

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

“It hurts the spirit, somehow, to read the word environments, when the plural means that there are so many alternatives there to be sorted through, as in a market, and voted on.”

Mean Science Spirit Hurt Environment Environmental Alternatives It Hurts

Book:A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

Source: A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

“Medical knowledge and technical savvy are biodegradable. The sort of medicine that was practiced in Boston or New York or Atlanta fifty years ago would be as strange to a medical student or intern today as the ceremonial dance of a !Kung San tribe would seem to a rock festival audience in Hackensack.”

Inspirational Years Seems Would Be Today Audience Rocks New York Students Strange Years Ago Medicine Dance Medical Fifty Tribes Boston Festivals Atlanta Savvy Biodegradable Medical Knowledge

Author:Lewis Thomas

“Most of the time I've worked in labs if I didn't encounter something in a week entirely unexpected and surprising I'd consider it a lost week. Lots of that is due to mistakes and stupidity, but it could open a new line of inquiry. Something really good turns up once in a hundred times, but it makes the whole day worthwhile.”

Ifs Whole Turns Lost Lines Mistake Week Hundred Stupidity Dues Encounters Unexpected Worthwhile Surprising Inquiry Labs

Author:Lewis Thomas

“The dilemma of modern medicine, and the underlying central flaw in medical education and, most of all, in the training of interns, is the irresistible drive to do something, anything. It is expected by patients and too often agreed to by their doctors, in the face of ignorance.”

Faces Modern Ignorance Training Doctors Medicine Patient Expected Medical Flaws Irresistible Dilemma Modern Medicine Medical Education

Author:Lewis Thomas