“Da Vinci was as great a mechanic and inventor as were Newton and his friends. Yet a glance at his notebooks shows us that what fascinated him about nature was its variety, its infinite adaptability, the fitness and the individuality of all its parts. By contrast what made astronomy a pleasure to Newton was its unity, its singleness, its model of a nature in which the diversified parts were mere disguises for the same blank atoms.” MadeShowsScienceNatureNaturalPleasureModelsInfiniteUnityMereIndividualityAstronomyVarietyAtomsFascinatedContrastBlankDisguiseGlancesMechanicInventorNotebookNewtonAdaptabilitySingleness Book:The Common Sense of Science Source: The Common Sense of Science
“On the country has gathered the idea of a natural way of life: of peace, innocence, and simple virtue. On the city has gathered the idea of an achieved centre of learning, communication, light. Powerful hostile associations have also developed: on the city as a place of noise, worldliness and ambition; on the country as a place of backwardness, ignorance, limitation. A contrast between country and city, as fundamental ways of life, reaches back into classical times.” WayIdeasCountryLightNaturalSimplePowerfulCitiesVirtueIgnoranceCommunicationAmbitionFundamentalsNoiseLimitationInnocenceAssociationContrastCentreHostileWorldliness Book:The Country and the City Source: The Country and the City
“I love travelling, and had the pleasure of being in the most developed country in the world and then parts of two of the most pristine natural areas of the world: the Galapagos islands and the Equador Amazon jungle. The contrast was incredible.” WorldTwoCountryNaturalPleasureAreasIncrediblesIslandsContrastJungleAmazonPristineDeveloped CountryGalapagos Islands Author:Adam Garcia
“As a cultural form, database represents the world as a list of items and it refuses to order this list. In contrast, a narrative creates a cause-and-effect trajectory of seemingly unordered items (events). Therefore, database and narrative are natural enemies. Competing for the same territory of human culture, each claims an exclusive right to make meaning out of the world.” WorldHumansFormOrderCultureCausesNaturalEnemyEffectsEventsClaimsRefuseListsNarrativeTerritoryContrastCompetingItemsExclusiveCause And EffectTrajectoryDatabasesNatural Enemies Author:Lev Manovich
“In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record - it's easy to discover who's in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don't appear on any organization chart.” MatterEasyNaturalCompanyLeaderRecordsOrganizationContrastFormalHierarchy Author:Gary Hamel
“Tears may be considered as the natural and involuntary resource of the mind overcome by some sudden and violent emotion, before ithas had time to reconcile its feelings to the change in circumstances: while laughter may be defined to be the same sort of convulsive and involuntary movement, occasioned by mere sur prise or contrast (in the absence of any more serious emotion), before it has time to reconcile its belief to contradictory appearances.” MindMayFeelingsBeliefNaturalEmotionCryMovementTearsSeriousCircumstancesLaughterResourcesOvercomingMereAppearanceAbsenceViolentDefinedContrastContradictoryReconcileInvoluntary Book:Lectures on the English Comic Writers Source: Lectures on the English Comic Writers
“Where philosophy ends, poetry must commence. There should not be a common point of view, a natural manner of thinking which standsin contrast to art and liberal education, or mere living; that is, one should not conceive of a realm of crudeness beyond the boundaries of education. Every conscious link of an organism should not perceive its limits without a feeling for its unity in relation to the whole. For example, philosophy should not only be contrasted to non-philosophy, but also to poetry.” ThinkingShouldArtEndsPhilosophyWholeFeelingsPoetryNaturalViewsCommonExamplePoetLimitsConsciousRelationPhilosophicalUnityMerePoint Of ViewBoundariesPerceiveRealmsLinksContrastOrganismsLiberal Education Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
“An elegant simplicity is an understated, organic aesthetic that contrasts with the excess of consumerist lifestyles. Drawing from influences ranging from Zen to the Quakers, it celebrates natural materials and clean, functional expressions, such as are found in many of the hand-made arts and crafts from this community.” ArtMadeHandsFoundCommunityNaturalInfluenceExpressionMaterialsCleanSimplicityDrawingLifestyleCelebrateCraftsExcessAestheticContrastElegantQuakerUnderstatedArts And CraftsNatural Materials Author:Duane Elgin