Ancient Quotes - Page 17

• In the shallow parts of many Swiss lakes, where there is a depth of no more than from 5 to 15 feet of water, ancient wooden piles are observed at the bottom sometimes worn down to the surface of the mud, sometimes projecting slightly above it.

  Charles Lyell

  Feet, Lakes, Water

  Charles Lyell (2005). “The Geological Evidence of Man”, p.14, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Every native species, however humble in appearance...has its place in the nation's heritage. It is a masterpiece of evolution, an ancient, multifaceted entity that shares the land with us.

  E. O. Wilson

  Humble, Land, Heritage

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• Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war... Mostly the animals understand their roles, but man, by comparison, seems troubled by a message that, it is often said, he cannot quite remember or has gotten wrong... Bereft of instinct, he must search continually for meanings... Man was a reader before he became a writer, a reader of what Coleridge once called the mighty alphabet of the universe.

  Loren Eiseley

  Beach, War, Animal

  "The Unexpected Universe". Book by Loren Eiseley, www.wired.com. 1964.

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• No ancient story, not even Homer's Iliad or Odyssey, has remained as popular through the course of time. The story of Rama appears as old as civilization and has a fresh appeal for every generation.

  David Frawley

  Civilization, Generations, Stories

  David Frawley (2000). “The Oracle of Rama”, p.16, Lotus Press

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• So what if I'm ninety-three? So what if I'm ancient and cranky and my body's a wreck? If they're willing to accept me and my guilty conscience, why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?

  Sara Gruen

  Running, What If, Three

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• At first I didn't understand what [Thelonious Monk] was doing, but I went back again, and what I can say about Monk is that I heard ancient Africa in his music. When he played, it was like a ballet. He captured the sound of the universe. Monk could take a triad, a simple chord, and make it sound dissonant. I'm sure that element he had in his piano was part of the two years he spent traveling with his mother in gospel music in the tent shows.

  Randy Weston

  Music, Mother, Simple

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• The reason why the music [jazz] is important is because it's an art form-an ancient art form-that takes in the mythology of our people.

  Wynton Marsalis

  Art, People, Important

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• The day is past when schools could afford to give sufficient time and attention to the teaching of the ancient languages to enable the student to get that enjoyment out of classical literature that made the lives of our grandfathers so rich.

  James Loeb

  Teaching, School, Past

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• Occasionally they came to villages, and at each village they encountered a roadblock of fallen trees. Having had centuries of experience with the smallpox virus, the village elders had instituted their own methods for controlling the virus, according to their received wisdom, which was to cut their villages off from the world, to protect their people from a raging plague. It was reverse quarantine, an ancient practice in Africa, where a village bars itself from strangers during a time of disease, and drives away outsiders who appear. (94)

  Richard Preston

  Cutting, Practice, People

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• Western societies from ancient Athens to imperial Rome to the French republic rarely collapsed because of a shortage of resources or because foreign enemies proved too numerous or formidable in arms - even when those enemies were grim Macedonians or Germans. Rather, in times of peace and prosperity there arose an unreal view of the world beyond their borders, one that was the product of insularity brought about by success, and an intellectual arrogance that for some can be the unfortunate byproduct of an enlightened society.

  Victor Davis Hanson

  Views, Rome, Intellectual Arrogance

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• More immediately, I'm currently working on another Dracula in which there will be connections with ancient Egypt. That's about as far as I want to go in commenting on current work.

  Fred Saberhagen

  Egypt, Connections, Literature

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• With all the mass media concentrated in a few hands, the ancient faith in the competition of ideas in the free market seems like a hollow echo of a much simpler day.

  Kingman Brewster, Jr.

  Echoes, Media, Hands

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• The integral approach is committed to the full spectrum of consciousness as it manifests in all its extraordinary diversity. This allows the integral approach to recognize and honor the Great Holarchy of Being first elucidated by the perennial philosophy and the great wisdom traditions in general... The integral vision embodies an attempt to take the best of both worlds, ancient and modern. But that demands a critical stance willing to reject unflinchingly the worst of both as well.

  Ken Wilber

  Philosophy, Diversity, Honor

  "The Eye of Spirit : An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad". Book by Ken Wilber, 1997.

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• Man was so created by the Lord as to be able while living in the body to speak with spirits and angels, as in fact was done in the most ancient times; for, being a spirit clothed with a body, he is one with them

  Emanuel Swedenborg

  Angel, Men, Done

  Emanuel Swedenborg (2013). “Arcana Coelestia, Volume 1 (Annotated Edition)”, p.51, Jazzybee Verlag

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• All ancient history was written with a moral object; the ethical interest predominates almost to the exclusion of all others.

  Tacitus

  Exclusion, Moral, Ethical

  Cornelius Tacitus (1912). “Tacitus, The Histories”

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• One reads thousands of books, of poets, modern and ancient, as one meets thousands of people. What remains of it all is hard to tell.

  Marguerite Yourcenar

  Book, People, Poet

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• In these days of conflict between ancient and modern studies, there must surely be something to be said for a study which did not begin with Pythagoras, and will not end with Einstein, but is the oldest and the youngest of all.

  G. H. Hardy

  Science, Study, Conflict

  G. H. Hardy (2012). “A Mathematician's Apology”, p.76, Cambridge University Press

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• As we manipulate everyday words, we forget that they are fragments of ancient and eternal stories, that we are building our houses with broken pieces of sculptures and ruined statues of gods as the barbarians did.

  Bruno Schulz

  Broken, House, Everyday

  Wojciech Chmurzyński, Bruno Schulz, Muzeum Literatury im. Adama Mickiewicza w Warszawie (1995). “Bruno Schulz 1892-1942: katalog-pamiętnik wystawy "Bruno Schulz. Ad memoriam" w Muzeum Literatury im. Adama Mickiewicza w Warszawie”

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• In particular, Australia, because of its ancient geography, soil profile and distinctive weather patterns, is more adversely affected by climate variability than some other continents.

  Peter Garrett

  Weather, Australia, Climate

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• And, in the future, while the dumb show of bohemianism plays itself out in the cookie cutter shape of the politically correct martyr/victim, aesthetic terrorists will not involve themselves in the dubious rewards of celebrity. The best of them will work alone, already a part of the enemy camp, and in chameleon-like style master the fifth-column algorithms to subvert the ancient regime. We won't know them by their name but their compensation will be to affect the outcome of the planet. Until then, there's a lot of work to be done.

  Adam Parfrey

  Play, Names, Dumb

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• Halloween is an ancient druidic holiday, one the Celtic peoples have celebrated for millennia. It is the crack between the last golden rays of summer and the dark of winter; the delicately balanced tweak of the year before it is given over entirely to the dark; a time for the souls of the departed to squint, to peek and perhaps to travel through the gap. What could be more thrilling and worthy of celebration than that? It is a time to celebrate sweet bounty, as the harvest is brought in. It is a time of excitement and pleasure for children before the dark sets in. We should all celebrate that.

  Jenny Colgan

  Summer, Sweet, Children

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• The Hindus have worshipped from ancient times the baby Krishna in the arms of Virgin Devaki just as the Roman catholics [sic] worship Madona [sic] with baby Christ.

  Swami Abhedananda

  Baby, Catholic, Arms

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• Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilization as black has no element of truth to it.

  Zahi Hawass

  Civilization, Black, Elements

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• In the mountains, travelers were reduced to the speed of men on foot. Here, the ancient English sense of journey, 'a day's travel' (French journee), meant the same as the Old Persian word farsang, 'the distance a man could travel on foot in a day,' and the territory was in effect ungovernable.

  Rory Stewart

  Distance, Journey, Men

  Rory Stewart (2009). “The Places In Between”, p.92, Pan Macmillan

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• The past is buried deep within the ground in Rabat, although the ancient walls in the old city are still standing, painted in electrifying variations of royal blue that make the winding roads look like streamlets or shallow ocean water

  Raquel Cepeda

  Travel, Wall, Ocean

  Raquel Cepeda (2014). “Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina”, p.179, Simon and Schuster

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