Diane Ackerman Quotes - Page 7

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Devising a vocabulary for gardening is like devising a vocabulary for sex. There are the correct Latin names, but most people invent euphemisms. Those who refer to plants by Latin name are considered more expert, if a little pedantic.

Diane Ackerman

Sex, Latin, Vocabulary

Diane Ackerman (2002). “Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden”, G K Hall & Company

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We try to exile ourselves more and more from nature - not always consciously: We build houses; we dismiss nature; nature has to be outside, because we're inside. God forbid something like a cockroach comes inside, or some dust.

Diane Ackerman

Dust, House, Trying

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Working from home meant we could vary snack and coffee breaks, change our desks or view, goof off, drink on the job, even spend the day in pajamas, and often meet to gossip or share ideas. On the other hand, we bossed ourselves around, set impossible goals, and demanded longer hours than office jobs usually entail. It was the ultimate "flextime," in that it depended on how flexible we felt each day, given deadlines, distractions, and workaholic crescendos.

Diane Ackerman

Jobs, Work, Coffee

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There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.

Diane Ackerman

Stupid, Ideas, Fool

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So before I start work on a book, I'm like a pregnant mole - I obsessively tidy and order my closets and everything in my study. Because there's such a cascade of images and ideas that I'm grapping with mentally, I couldn't also be in a chaotic setting.

Diane Ackerman

Book, Order, Ideas

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As people flock to urban centers where ground space is limited, cities with green walls and roofs and skyscraper farms offer improved health and well-being, renewable resources, reliable food supply, and relief to the environment.

Diane Ackerman

Wall, Cities, Space

"Living, Thinking Houses". opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. August 4, 2012.

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Choice is a signature of our species.

Diane Ackerman

Choices, Signatures, Species

Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Slender Thread: Rediscovering Hope at the Heart of Crisis”, p.254, Vintage

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Part of the irony of environmentalism is questing for solutions when you know you're part of the problem.

Diane Ackerman

Irony, Problem, Knows

Diane Ackerman (2011). “The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds”, p.156, Vintage

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In the winter, I enjoy cross-country skiing and raising orchids and amaryllises. If I could grow tropical flowers as perennials, I would, especially hibiscus and mandavilla.

Diane Ackerman

Country, Flower, Winter

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Flight is nothing but an attitude in motion.

Diane Ackerman

Attitude, Flying, Flight

Diane Ackerman (1987). “On Extended Wings: An Adventure in Flight”, Scribner Book Company

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habit, a particularly insidious thug who chokes passion and smothers love. Habit puts us on autopilot.

Diane Ackerman

Passion, Thug, Habit

Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of Love: Author of the National Bestseller A Natural History of the Senses”, p.119, Vintage

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An occasion, catalyst, or tripwire?permits the poet to reach into herself and haul up whatever nugget of the human condition distracts her at the moment, something that can't be reached in any other way.

Diane Ackerman

Way, Nuggets, Moments

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There is a furnace in our cells, and when we breathe we pass the world through our bodies, brew it lightly, and turn it loose again, gently altered for having known us.

Diane Ackerman

Cells, World, Body

Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of the Senses”, p.20, Vintage

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My mother always said I must be part Mongolian because of my lotus-pale complexion and squid-ink black hair.

Diane Ackerman

Mother, Hair, Squids

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On some summer days in New York City, the air hangs thickly visible, like the combined exhalations of eight million souls. Steam rising from vents underground makes you wonder if there isn't one giant sweat gland lodged beneath the city.

Diane Ackerman

Summer, New York, Eight

"Living, Thinking Houses". opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. August 2012.

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Our relationship with nature has changed radically, irreversibly, but by no means all for the bad. Our new epoch is laced with invention. Our mistakes are legion, but our talent is immeasurable.

Diane Ackerman

Mistake, Mean, Talent

"The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us". Book by Diane Ackerman, September 14, 2015.

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The idea of safety had shrunk into particles - one snug moment, then the next. Meanwhile, the brain piped fugues of worry and staged mind-theaters full of tragedies and triumphs, because unfortunately, the fear of death does wonders to focus the mind, inspire creativity, and heightens the senses. Trusting one's hunches only seems gamble if one has time for seem; otherwise the brain goes on autopilot and trades the elite craft of analysis for the best rapid insights that float up from its danger files and ancient bag of tricks.

Diane Ackerman

Creativity, Ideas, Worry

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I consider fiction a very high-class form of lying. I enjoy and admire it enormously, but I don't think I'm very good at it.

Diane Ackerman

Lying, Thinking, Class

"Author Diane Ackerman: 'One Hundred Names for Love'". Interview with Jennifer Haupt, www.psychologytoday.com. May 17, 2012.

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...for most people in the [Jewish] Ghetto [of Warsaw] nature lived only in memory -- no parks, birds, or greenery existed in the Ghetto -- and they suffered the loss of nature like a phantom-limb pain, an amputation that scrambled the body's rhythms, starved the senses, and made basic ideas about the world impossible for children to fathom.

Diane Ackerman

Children, Pain, Memories

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Living with anyone for many years takes skill. To keep peace in the household, couples learn to adapt to one another, hopefully in positive ways.

Diane Ackerman

Couple, Years, Skills

"Author Diane Ackerman: 'One Hundred Names for Love'". Interview with Jennifer Haupt, www.psychologytoday.com. May 17, 2012.

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What do those of us who aren't tall, flawlessly sculpted adolescents do?
Answer: Console ourselves with how relative beauty can be...
Thank heavens for the arousing qualities of zest, intelligence,
wit, curiosity, sweetness, passion, talent and grace.

Diane Ackerman

Beauty, Passion, Zest

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Love, like truth, is the unassailable defense.

Diane Ackerman

Love, Defense, Truth Is

Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of Love: Author of the National Bestseller A Natural History of the Senses”, p.17, Vintage

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What a lonely species we are, searching for signals of life from other galaxies, adopting companion animals, visiting parks and zoos to commune with other beasts. In the process, we discover our shared identity.

Diane Ackerman

Lonely, Zoos, Animal

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There's no place you can go on the prairie that you don't hear the white noise of the wind, steady and rough as surf curling along a non-existant shore.

Diane Ackerman

Wind, White, Goes On

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Love is the great intangible. ... Frantic and serene, vigilant and calm, wrung-out and fortified, explosive and sedate -- love commands a vast army of moods. Hoping for victory, limping from the latest skirmish, lovers enter the arena once again. ... Love is the white light of emotion. ... Everyone admits that love is wonderful and necessary, yet no one can agree on what it is.

Diane Ackerman

Army, Love Is, White

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Born: October 7, 1948
Occupation: Author
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