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Earth Quotes

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Earth Quotes

“Many of the earth's habitats, animals, plants, insects and even micro-organisms that we know to be rare may not be known at all by future generations. We have the capability and the responsibility to act; we must do so before it is too late.”

Knows May Earth Nature Animal Responsibility Known Generations Late Plant Too Late Capability Organisms Insects Future Generation Habitat

Book:Worlds in Harmony

Source: Worlds in Harmony

“The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism.”

Earth Land Century Television Discovery Radio Complexity Organisms Twentieth Century Outstanding Scientific Discovery Land Conservation

Book:Round River

Source: Round River

“Every living thing is, from the cosmic perspective, incredibly lucky simply to be alive. Most, 90 percent and more, of all the organisms that have ever lived have died without viable offspring, but not a single one of your ancestors, going back to the dawn of life on Earth, suffered that normal misfortune. You spring from an unbroken line of winners.”

Life Earth Lines Alive Perspective Lucky Normal Spring Percent Died Winner Dawn Misfortunes Cosmic Ancestor Organisms Living Things Offspring Unbroken

Author:Daniel Dennett

“I have already indicated to you the meaning of the word religion, as applied to Islam. The truth is that Islam is not a Church. It is a State conceived as a contractual organism long before Rousseau ever thought of such a thing, and animated by an ethical ideal which regards man not as an earth-rooted creature, defined by this or that portion of the earth, but as a spiritual being understood in terms of a social mechanism, and possessing rights and duties as a living factor in that mechanism.”

“The earth is not a mechanism but an organism, a being with its own life and its own reasons, where the support and sustenance of the human animal is incidental. If man in his newfound power and vanity persists in the attempt to remake the planet in his own image, he will succeed only in destroying himself - not the planet. The earth will survive our most ingenious folly.”

Ifs Men Humans Reason Earth Animal Support Planets Succeed Vanity Folly Destroying Mechanism Persist Organisms Ingenious Remakes Sustenance Human Animal

Author:Edward Abbey

“In the beginning, there were bacteria.... [A] nearly universal assumption is that all subsequent life descended from the original life form through a continuous chain of ancestor-descendant pairs. This assumption looks good because all living organisms share biochemical traits. It is conceivable, of course, that life originated more than once on the early earth but that all except one life form died out early, leaving a single lineage as the ancestor of life as we know it. If this did happen, it was the first important species extinction.”

“Sometime in the first billion years, life appeared on the earth's surface. Slowly, the fossil record indicates, living organisms climbed the ladder from simple to more advanced forms.”

Years Firsts Earth Form Simple Records Surface Billions Organisms Fossils Ladders Living Organisms

Book:White Dwarfs: Man's Descent from the Stars

Source: White Dwarfs: Man's Descent from the Stars

“We are learning that the earth functions like an invisible organism. We are the various cells of one living being. Those who work to save the earth are its antibodies.”

Earth Function Various Invisible Cells Organisms Antibodies

Author:Jeremy Rifkin

“The issue, as correctly emphasized by Carl Sagan, is the probability of the evolution of high intelligence and an electronic civilization on an inhabited world. Once we have life (and almost surely it will be very different from life on Earth), what is the probability of its developing a lineage with high intelligence? On Earth, among millions of lineages of organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence; this makes me believe in its utter improbability.”

World Believe Different Earth Millions Issues Events Evolution Civilization Billions Astronomy Developing Organisms Probability Lineage Improbability Sagan Speciation

Author:Ernst Mayr

“On Earth, among millions of lineages or organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence ; this makes me believe its utter improbablity.”

Believe Earth Millions Events Billions Astronomy Organisms Lineage Speciation

Author:Ernst Mayr

“I have been trying to think of the earth as a kind of organism, but it is no go. I cannot think of it this way. It is too big, too complex, with too many working parts lacking visible connections. The other night, driving through a hilly, wooded part of southern New England, I wondered about this. If not like an organism, what is it like, what is it most like? Then, satisfactorily for that moment, it came to me: it is most like a single cell”

Ifs Thinking Way Trying Kind Has Beens Moments Bigs Earth Night Connections England Complexes Driving Cells Visible That Moment Southern Organisms Lacking New England

Book:A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays

Source: A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays