“I think if you look at any facet of nature in enough detail, you find it fascinating. How could you not? The universe is so full of marvels. Here's an example -- rain, the shape of rain. I was minding my own business, working on my book, looking out the window, and it was raining and I was noticing that the raindrops were falling in that classic round-looking way, and I thought, 'I wonder if raindrops really are round?' So I started researching it a little, and I discovered that raindrops change shape 300 times a second.” IfsThinkingWayLooksLittlesBookEnoughFallUniverseMy OwnWonderExampleShapesRainWindowRoundsDetailsClassicFascinatingNoticingOwn BusinessFacetsRaindropsMinding My Own Business Author:Diane Ackerman
“Since the universe must contain millions of appropriate planets, consciousness in some form - but not with the paired eyes and limbs, and the brain built of neurons in the only example we know - may evolve frequently. But if only one origin of life in a million ever leads to consciousness, then Martian bacteria most emphatically do not imply Little Green Men.” IfsKnowsMenMayLittlesEyeFormUniverseBrainConsciousnessMillionsExamplePlanetsBuiltGreenEvolveAppropriateLimbsNeuronsBacteriaOrigin Of LifeMartians Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History
“Many of us are caught in separateness and we look for love out there, out there. But then as we proceed inside there will be the love. The universe is an example of love. Like a tree. Like the ocean. Like my body. Like my wheelchair. I see the love.” LooksBodyUniverseTreeExampleOceanCaughtWheelchairsLooking For LoveSeparatenessExamples Of Love Author:Ram Dass
“Spinoza , for example, thought that insight into the essence of reality, into the harmonious structure of the eternal universe, necessarily awakens love for this universe. For him, ethical conduct is entirely determined by such insight into nature, just as our devotion to a person may be determined by insight into his greatness or genius. Fears and petty passions, alien to the great love of the universe, which is logos itself, will vanish, according to Spinoza, once our understanding of reality is deep enough.” MayPersonsEnoughRealityUniversePassionUnderstandingExampleGreatnessGeniusEternalEssenceStructureInsightDeterminedDevotionAliensEthicalPettyGreat LoveHarmoniousLogosSpinoza Book:Eclipse of Reason Source: Eclipse of Reason
“If our solar system is not unusual, then there are so many planets in the universe that, for example, they outnumber the sum of all sounds and words ever uttered by every human who has ever lived. To declare that Earth must be the only planet with life in the universe would be inexcusably bigheaded of us.” IfsHumansWould BeEarthUniverseSoundExamplePlanetsAliensUnusualSolar System Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
“Our universe cannot even be stated symbolically. And this touches us all more directly than one might suppose. For example, artists, who have been very little influenced by social systems, have always responded instinctively to latent assumptions about the shape of the universe. The incomprehensibility of our new cosmos seems to me, ultimately, to be the reason for the chaos of modern art.” LittlesHas BeensArtReasonSeemsMightArtistUniverseSocialModernExampleShapesChaosAssumptionCosmosLatentModern ArtSocial Systems Author:Kenneth Clark