Gaia Quotes

• Evolution is a tightly coupled dance, with life and the material environment as partners. From the dance emerges the entity Gaia.

  James Lovelock

  Inspirational, Dance, Evolution

  "Homage to Gaia: The Life of an Independent Scientist". Book by James Lovelock, Oxford University Press, 2000.

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  Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Life, Beauty

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.15, St. Martin's Press

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• Those of us who consider ourselves to be somehow involved in the birthing of a new age, should discover Gaia as well. The idea of Gaia may facilitate the task of converting destructive human activities to constructive and cooperative behavior. It is an idea which deeply startles us, and in the process, may help us as a species to make the necessary jump to planetary awareness.

  James Lovelock

  Ideas, Age, Tasks

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• If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way.

  Aristotle

  Inspirational, Life, Nature

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• The basic pattern of life is a network. Whenever you see life, you see networks. The whole planet, what we can term 'Gaia' is a network of processes involving feedback tubes. Humans are part of the larger whole, Gaia.

  Fritjof Capra

  Patterns, Life Is, Feedback

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• Gaia spins on, silently contemplating what it means to be born into a sarcastic universe.

  David Brin

  Sarcastic, Mean, Born

  David Brin (1990). “Earth”, Spectra

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• Come, heart, where hill is heaped upon hill:
  For there the mystical brotherhood
  Of sun and moon and hollow and wood
  And river and stream work out their will.

  William Butler Yeats

  Nature, Heart, Moon

  William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.8, Library of Alexandria

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• Human history is a Gaian dream.

  Terence McKenna

  Dream, Historical, Humans

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• If you start any large theory, such as quantum mechanics, plate tectonics, evolution, it takes about 40 years for mainstream science to come around. Gaia has been going for only 30 years or so.

  James Lovelock

  Years, Evolution, Mechanic

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• Gaia's main problems are not industrialization, ozone depletion, overpopulation, or resource depletion. Gaia's main problem is the lack of mutual understanding and mutual agreement in the noosphere about how to proceed with those problems. We cannot rein in industry if we cannot reach mutual understanding and mutual agreement based on a worldcentric moral perspective concerning the global commons. And we reach the worldcentric moral perspective through a difficult and laborious process of interior growth and transcendence.

  Ken Wilber

  Ozone, Agreement, Perspective

  "A Brief History of Everything". Book by Ken Wilber, 1996.

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• I believe that we will see a lot of destruction, but I believe that if we can see the right patterns and draw the right lessons from that destruction, we might be able to rebuild before it's too late. And then I have that ultimate optimism that even if we can't, life will rebuild itself. In a way, the global economy might collapse, but Gaia won't, and people's ingenuity won't. We will rebuild society, we will rebuild local economies, we will rebuild human aspirations.

  Vandana Shiva

  Believe, Optimism, People

  Source: scottlondon.com

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• The superabundance is an ecological myth that we will never run out of resources, that the Earth, that Gaia, is in this perpetual state of renewal. And the "contagious magic" is the blind belief that this is the case, and the reason we're careering towards ecological disaster.

  Daniel O'Sullivan

  Running, Blind Belief, Magic

  "A Flow Of Playfulness: An Interview With Laniakea". Interview with Russell Cuzner, thequietus.com. September 14, 2016.

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• In the Gaia theory air, water, and soil are major components of one central organism, planet Earth. What we typically think of as life - the plants and animals that inhabit the earth - has evolved merely to regulate the chemistry of the biosphere. Humans are insignificant participants, far less important to the life cycle than termites. Even the imbalance that we have created by adding massive quantities of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere may be brought back to acceptable levels by other organisms functioning in their capacity to correct excesses.

  David Easton

  Animal, Thinking, Air

  David Easton (2007). “The Rammed Earth House”, p.54, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• What the psychedelic thing can be seen as, when it's done with plants, as a return to Gaia, an immersion in the feminine.

  Terence McKenna

  Done, Return, Psychedelic

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• The Gaia Hypothesis of James Lovelock [and Lynn Margulis] puts forward a scientific view of the living Earth, which in one respect is modern, empherical, scientific, in another respect re-awakens an ancient archetype, which in fact is so clearly suggested by the very name of the hypothesis, Gaia, the Greek name for Mother Earth.

  Rupert Sheldrake

  Mother, Views, Names

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• I know that to personalize the Earth System as Gaia, as I have often done and continue to do in this book, irritates the scientifically correct, but I am unrepentant because metaphors are more than ever needed for a widespread comprehension of the true nature of the Earth and an understanding of the lethal dangers that lie ahead.

  James Lovelock

  Lying, Book, Understanding

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• I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for it to become big and strong--Mother Nature's fist of fury, Gaia's stern rebuke. Considering the havoc mankind has wreaked upon nature with deforesting, stripmining, and the destruction of animal habitat, it only seems fair that nature get some of its own back and teach us that there are forces greater than our own.

  James Wolcott

  Mother, Strong, Stupid

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• Dont hurt me,'Caine whispered. He didnt have the will to look up at her. Gaia laughed. "Have you seen Mother? I seem to have lost her.

  Michael Grant

  Mother, Hurt, Looks

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• Sometimes just being on a beach with my loved ones is all the adventure I need. I am a happy camper and continue to be a citizen of the world. I have yet to discover other cultures, other peoples dreams and treasures. I will always be a traveler who is discovering beautiful Gaia.

  Guy Laliberte

  Beautiful, Dream, Beach

  "Mr. Blasberg's Book Corner: Gaia". Interview with Derek Blasberg, www.harpersbazaar.com. June 1, 2011.

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• Some of us still get all weepy when we think about the Gaia Hypothesis, the idea that earth is a big furry goddess-creature who resembles everybody's mom in that she knows what's best for us. But if you look at the historical record - Krakatoa, Mt. Vesuvius, Hurricane Charley, poison ivy, and so forth down the ages - you have to ask yourself: Whose side is she on, anyway?

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  God, Mom, Thinking

  Barbara Ehrenreich (1990). “WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES”, Pantheon

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• Toby Tyrrell unravels the various formulations of Gaia and explains how recent scientific developments bring the hypothesis into question. His criticisms are insightful, profound, and convincing, but fair. On Gaia is wonderfully informative and a pleasure to read.

  Francisco J. Ayala

  Profound, Insightful, Criticism

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• I am sure I have heard this several times from places I can't recall, but it's not already in the Gaia Quotes database, so I add this profound insight from the fields of psychological healing and spiritual evolution. It sure has helped me.

  Robert Frost

  Spiritual, Healing, Profound

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• Ella's supersonic voice followed her all the way to Bleecker Street and then dissolved amid the noisy profusion of shops, cafes, and restaurants and the crush of people that made the West Village of Manhattan unique in the world. In a single block you could buy fertility statues from Tanzania, rare Amazonian orchids, a pawned brass tuba, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, or the best, most expensive cup of coffee you ever tasted. It was the doughnuts, incidentally, that attracted Gaia.

  Francine Pascal

  Crush, Block, Coffee

  Francine Pascal (2001). “Sam”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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• The gaiaphage. That's the other word they use. 'Gaia,' as in world. 'Phage,' as in a worm or something that eats something up. I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say I don't think something that calls itself a 'world eater' is a good thing.

  Michael Grant

  Thinking, Use, World

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• And now, at last, gaiaphage and Nemesis stood facing each other. “Why didn’t you just . . . fade?” Gaia demanded plaintively. “You hit me,” Nemesis said. It was a little boy’s voice coming from Caine’s mouth. “And that’s not okay.

  Michael Grant

  Boys, Voice, Mouths

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