“The student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its embryo.” AnimalWonderStudentsDevelopmentOffersMiraclePlantWorthyOperationsAdmirationEmbryosInspection Book:Collected essays Source: Collected essays
“It is conceivable that animal life might have the attribute of using the heat of surrounding matter, at its natural temperature, as a source of energy for mechanical effect . . . .The influence of animal or vegetable life on matter is infinitely beyond the range of any scientific enquiry hitherto entered on. Its power of directing the motions of moving particles, in the demonstrated daily miracle of our human free-will, and in the growth of generation after generation of plants from a single seed, are infinitely different from any possible result of the fortuitous concurrence of atoms.” HumansDifferentMatterMightMovingEnergyGrowthNaturalAnimalResultsGenerationsInfluenceEffectsSourceMiraclePlantSeedsRangeHeatFree WillAttributesAtomsVegetablesParticlesTemperatureAnimal LifeEnquiryFortuitousConcurrenceDaily Miracles Author:Lord Kelvin
“And at this moment in history, our core value happens to be the raw, aching truth of the human predicament. It may also be the only belief that can save us as a species. A species that will continue to find comfort and delight in the companionship of animals, the miracle of birds, the colours of the corals and the majesty of the forests. We are in it together, on this blue spinning marble in the cold and silent void. And we must act on that belief, if we are going to be able to continue to live a good life here, in this beautiful and fragile country, on this lovely planet, our only home.” IfsHumansMayCountryMomentsHomeHappensAbleTogetherBeautifulValuesBeliefAnimalEnvironmentPlanetsColdComfortBirdMiracleBlueSilentSpeciesDelightCoreLovelyForestsColourGood LifeFragileVoidCompanionshipMajestySpinningMarbleCore ValuesPredicaments Author:Geraldine Brooks
“It is obvious that the great majority of humans throughout history have had grossly, even ridiculously, unrealistic concepts of the world. Man is, among many other things, the mistaken animal, the foolish animal. Other species doubtless have much more limited ideas about the world, but what ideas they do have are much less likely to be wrong and are never foolish. White cats do not denigrate black, and dogs do not ask Baal, Jehovah, or other Semitic gods to perform miracles for them.” MenWorldHumansIdeasAsksBlackWhiteAnimalDogConceptsCatMiracleMajoritySpeciesObviousFoolishMistakenJehovah Author:George Gaylord Simpson