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Quote by David Quammen

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Contagio: La evolución de las pandemias

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David Quammen
David Quammen

David Quammen is an American writer known for his in-depth exploration of natural history. His works often involve biology, ecology, and the relationship between humans and nature. Born on February 24, 1948, Quammen's writing career spans multiple genres, including scientific writing, travel literature, and journalism. more

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“If the festivities at Christmas and the New Year take the form of an in creasingly conventional hullabaloo - since we no longer have the winter solstice as our excuse in the electronic age, nor, in the age of Jesus Christ Superstar, that of the Nativity, nor even that of the snow and ice isolating each person in their own inner space and numbing the blood in the veins - if the end-of-year revels make people so anxious, it is because they are taking the measure of the twelve months that are to come, which they will slowly have to plough through one by one. It is the same with time today as it is with having a child: it is too long in the carrying, too long agrowing. We would like to have the chance to enjoy it right away, to have the fast-forwarded projection of the next century. Think how impatient we are for the year 2000, this whole millennium to get through, while we are already madly curious about the year 2020 and, no doubt, perfectly disenchanted as to what awaits us in '86. The celebrations of the millennium really are going to have to be brilliant to overcome the boredom we feel when we think of the next century. If only we could at least know that there were merely one or two hundred years to go, that would make things more interesting. There is nothing like a catastrophe to usher in a millennium. They regenerate time in the same way as a cloudburst regenerates low water reserves. Yet it is time, real time, we are going to be short of. If the year 2000 does not happen, it will be because time will simply have disappeared, as winter has in some latitudes. But this is a dream. I fear that we won't have sufficient reserves to get to this point, and that the year 2000 will disappoint us as the year 1000 did by not bringing with it the end of the world.”

“The rebels had no need for stealth, some of them even chanting about useless kings, corrupt nobility, the price of bread, and the need for the commoners to take back what was owed to them. I took their ideals less seriously every time I passed a body in the streets. If they wanted a revolution and a restructuring of power, killing the people who never had power to begin with wasn't the way to do it.”

“You are not optional. You are essential. The world doesn’t need a copy—it needs your clarity, your cadence, your calling. When you show up for you, heaven echoes your arrival. Your presence is a prophecy. Your authenticity is an assignment. You don’t just inspire—you anchor others in truth. There are people whose healing hinges on your honesty. There are rooms waiting for your realness. There are destinies that depend on your decision to be undeniably you. So don’t shrink. Don’t shift. Don’t silence your shine. Show up loud. Show up loved. Show up led. Because when you do, others find permission to do the same. You are the blueprint. You are the breakthrough. You are the reason someone else will finally believe they’re enough.”