“When you think about the complexity of our natural world - plants using quantum mechanics for photosynthesis, for example - a smartphone begins to look like a pretty dumb object.” ThinkingWorldLooksNaturalExampleObjectsPlantDumbComplexityQuantumMechanicNatural WorldQuantum MechanicsSmartphonesPhotosynthesis Author:Jeff VanderMeer
“All my plans in private life; all my pursuits; all my designs, wishes, and thoughts, have this one great object in view: the overthrow of the ruffian Boroughmongers. If I write grammars; if I write on agriculture; if I sow, plant, or deal in seeds; whatever I do has first in view the destruction of those infamous tyrants.” IfsWritingFirstsWishViewsDealsPlansDesignObjectsDestructionPlantSeedsPursuitTyrantsAgricultureGrammarPrivate LifeInfamousRuffian Author:William Cobbett
“The interpretations of science do not give us this intimate sense of objects as the interpretations of poetry give it; they appeal to a limited faculty, and not to the whole man. It is not Linnaeus or Cavendish or Cuvier who gives us the true sense of animals, or water, or plants, who seizes their secret for us, who makes us participate in their life; it is Shakspeare [sic] … Wordsworth … Keats … Chateaubriand … Senancour.” MenGivingWholePoetryWaterAnimalSecretObjectsPlantAppealsIntimateFacultyInterpretationWordsworthLinnaeus Book:Essays in Criticism Source: Essays in Criticism
“To build enormous palaces, to conquer or to mimic nature, to ransack the world in order to gratify the passions of a man, is not thought of, but to add a few yards of land to your field, to plant an orchard, or enlarge a dwelling, to always be making life more comfortable and convenient, to avoid trouble, and to satisfy the smallest wants without effort and almost without cost. These are small objects, but the soul clings to them; it dwells upon them closely and day by day, till they at last shut out the rest of the world and sometimes intervene between itself and heaven.” MenWorldWantSoulSometimesLastsOrderPassionHeavenEffortTroubleLandFieldsObjectsCostComfortableAddPlantEnvironmentalEnormousConquerSustainabilitySmallestYardsPalacesConvenientDwellingOrchardSmall Objects Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
“From inanimate object, to microorganism, to plant, to insect, to animal, to human, there is an evolving level of intelligence.” HumansAnimalLevelsObjectsPlantEvolveInsectsInanimate ObjectsMicroorganisms Author:Bryan Kest