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Living Things Quotes

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Living Things Quotes

“Looking back through the mists of time, I recall some distinctly religious experiences in my teens--when I was only fourteen years old to be precise. These experiences opened my mind to the idea of a Creator and that caring for other living things was a Christian duty. My parents were not strongly religious at the time and when I announced at that youthful age that I wanted to be a priest, it not unnaturally provoked some incredulity, even mirth. In the same year, I became a vegetarian, which--for family and friends--was even more vexing.”

YearsMindIdeasAgeWantedChristianParentReligiousDutyCreatorCaringPriestsVegetarianTeensRecallsLooking BackPreciseFamily And FriendsLiving ThingsMistFourteenCaring For OthersMirthProvokedReligious ExperienceIncredulity
Author:Andrew Linzey
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“For centuries the most powerful argument for God's existence from the physical world was the so-called argument from design: Living things are so beautiful and elegant and so apparently purposeful, they could only have been made by an intelligent designer. But [Charles] Darwin provided a simpler explanation. His way is a gradual, incremental improvement starting from very simple beginnings and working up step by tiny incremental step to more complexity, more elegance, more adaptive perfection.”

WorldWayHas BeensMadeBeautifulSimplePowerfulExistenceStepsCenturyDesignArgumentPerfectionIntelligentStartingImprovementTinyExplanationDesignerComplexityMost PowerfulElegantEleganceLiving ThingsIntelligent DesignAdaptive
Author:Richard Dawkins
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“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

InspirationalHumansKindPersonsPhilosophyWholeFeelingsSpiritualDesireHumanityUniverseNatureHuman BeingsSpaceConsciousnessCompassionBeautyHumilityCreaturesAll ThingsTasksEmbracePrisonMental HealthAffectionCirclesDelusionVeganAnimal RightsEcologyTime And SpaceLiving ThingsVegetarianismInsperationalRelativitySelf ConsciousnessSelf CompassionLiving CreaturesThoughts And FeelingsNature BeautyHuman ConsciousnessHuman ThoughtSave Mother EarthHumans And AnimalsHuman ConnectionHuman ActionsSpace TimeAnimal CompassionSpiritual NatureNature And BeautyCommon HumanityOne With NatureAnimals In NatureKindness To AnimalsLimited TimeNature And AnimalsHuman CompassionModern PhysicsPersonal FeelingsThinking GodPersonal DesireLiving RightPersonal ConnectionGod NatureLiving RealityNature RelatedParts Of A WholeKind ThoughtsKind PersonCaring And CompassionEarth Community
Author:Albert Einstein
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“Disassemble the cells of a sponge (by passing them through a sieve, for instance), then dump them into a solution, and they will find their way back together and build themselves into a sponge again. You can do this to them over and over, and they will doggedly reassemble because, like you and me and every other living thing, they have one overwhelming impulse: to continue to be.”

WayTogetherCan DoLike YouSolutionsPassingPassingsInstanceCellsImpulseOverwhelmingLiving ThingsBack TogetherDumpSponges
Author:Bill Bryson
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“Basic characteristics of an individual organism: to divide, to unite, to merge into the universal, to abide in the particular, to transform itself, to define itself, and as living things tend to appear under a thousand conditions, to arise and vanish, to solidify and melt, to freeze and flow, to expand and contract. Since these effects occur together, any or all may occur at the same moment.”

LifeMayMomentsTogetherScienceIndividualConditionsEffectsParticularThousandFlowUniversalAriseCharacteristicsContractsDividesOrganismsLiving ThingsFreeze
Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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“The rooms of his apartment were full with the dog home again, convalescing. He was satisfied to know, even when she was out of sight, that somewhere in the apartment she was sleeping or eating or sitting watchfully. It was family, he guessed, more or less. Did most people want a house of living things at night, to know that in the dark around them other warm bodies slept? Such a house could even be the whole world.”

PeopleKnowsWorldWantWholeHomeBodyNightHouseDarkSleepRoomsDogEatingSittingSightWarmSatisfiedWhole WorldApartmentLiving Things
Book:How the Dead Dream
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“You have plenty of courage, I am sure," answered Oz. "All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.”

NeedsKindFacesDangerPlentyNot AfraidLiving ThingsConfidence In YourselfTrue CourageWizard Of Oz WizardWonderful Wizard Of OzTin Man
Book:The Wonderful World of Oz: The Wizard of Oz, The Emerald City of Oz, Glinda of Oz
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“Even the best weapon is an unhappy tool, hateful to living things. So the follower of the Way stays away from it. Weapons are unhappy tools, not chosen by thoughtful people, to be used only when there is no choice, and with a calm, still mind, without enjoyment. To enjoy using weapons is to enjoy killing people, and to enjoy killing people is to lose your share in the common good. It is right that the murder of many people be mourned and lamented. It is right that a victor in war be received with funeral ceremonies.”

PeopleWayMindStillsWarUsedChoicesEnjoyLosesCommonShareWeaponsToolsMurderKillingCalmUnhappyChosenEnjoymentThoughtfulFollowersFuneralCeremonyLiving ThingsHatefulCommon Good
Book:Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
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“You were born into a state of grace. It is impossible for you to leave it. You will die in a state of grace whether or not special words are spoken for you, or water or oil is poured upon your head. You share this blessing with the animals and all other living things. You cannot fall out of grace, nor can it be taken from you. You can ignore it. You can hold beliefs that blind you to its existence. You will still be graced but unable to perceive you own uniqueness and integrity, and blind also to other attributes with which you are automatically gifted.”

StillsStatesDiesFallBeliefWaterBornAnimalExistenceTakenGraceImpossibleShareSpecialIntegrityBlessingBlindOilPerceiveAttributesUniquenessGiftedLiving Things
Book:The Nature of Personal Reality (A Seth Book): Specific, Practical Techniques for Solving Everyday Problems and Enriching the Life You Know
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“People were so naive about plants, Ellie thought. They just chose plants for appearance, as they would choose a picture for the wall. It never occurred to them that plants were actually living things, busily performing all the living functions of respiration, ingestion, excretion, reproduction---and defense.”

PeopleWallFunctionPlantAppearanceDefensePerformingNaiveLiving ThingsReproductionRespirationActually Living
Book:Michael Crichton's Jurassic World
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“Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treausre of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors.”

IfsMindHumansLongBookLightLyingSpeakSecretCenturyDivineReflectionLibraryI RealizedDialogueSpokesHuman MindDisturbingSurvivingLiving ThingsMurmuring
Author:Umberto Eco
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“I was left alone there in the company of the orchids, roses and violets, which, like people waiting beside you who do not know you, preserved a silence which their individuality as living things made all the more striking, and warmed themselves in the heat of a glowing coal fire.”

PeopleKnowsMadeLeftWaitingSilenceCompanyFireRoseIndividualityHeatCoalVioletLiving ThingsGlowingLeft AloneBeside YouOrchids
Book:In Search of Lost Time, Volume II: Within a Budding Grove (A Modern Library E-Book)
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“Physiologists should think before putting down the instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic being. A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power; self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results.”

ThinkingShouldSelfResultsInstinctPreservationLiving ThingsWill PowerCardinalsSelf PreservationDischargeIndirectBeyond Good And Evil
Book:Basic Writings of Nietzsche
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“I have been a lucky man. To feel the intimacy of brothers is a marvelous thing in life. To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that comes from those whom we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weaknesses – that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things.”

PeopleKnowsMenFeelsHas BeensStillsBeautifulSleepLove IsFireGreaterOur LivesDangerBrotherLuckySolitudeWeaknessAffectionBoundariesIntimacyThings In LifeMarvelousLiving ThingsMarvelous ThingsLucky Man
Book:Canto general: a song of the people
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“If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by 'we' I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better. It is a talent we have only barely begun to grasp.”

IfsWayHumansKindMeanBookUniverseCoursesEnjoyAbilityExistenceTalentLessonsLuckyAchievementAppreciatePrivilegeMultitudesLiving Things
Book:A Short History of Nearly Everything
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“But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid.”

PeopleIfsWantLooksLightEarthEvilEnjoyFantasyTreeStupidShadowCastsNakedLiving ThingsPonderingYou Re StupidMargaritaPonder This
Author:Mikhail Bulgakov
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“We are so used to the notion of our own inevitability as life's dominant species that it is hard to grasp that we are here only because of timely extraterrestrial bangs and other random flukes. The one thing we have in common with all other living things is that for nearly four billions years our ancestors have managed to slip through a series of closing doors every time we needed them to.”

YearsHardUsedCommonFourDoorsOne ThingNeededSeriesSpeciesNotionBillionsSlipsAncestorDominantBangsLiving ThingsClosingInevitabilityTimelyExtraterrestrialFlukesClosing Doors
Book:A Short History of Nearly Everything
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