Living Things Quotes - Page 16

• It was implicitly supposed that every living thing was distinctively plant or animal; that there were real and profound differences between the two, if only they could be seized.

  Asa Gray

  Real, Animal, Two

  Asa Gray (1880). “Natural science and religion, 2 lectures”

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• Man could escape danger only by renouncing adventure, by abandoning that which has given to the human condition its unique character and genius among the rest of living things.

  Rene Dubos

  Adventure, Character, Unique

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• We humans are here because nothing can be perfect. There always have to be some living things that are unsatisfied, itchy, trying too hard. If it was all just animals and rocks and lettuce, the gods wouldn't feel like they had enough to do.

  Miranda July

  Animal, Rocks, Perfect

  "Miranda July" by Matthew Higgs, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 6, 2009.

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• Gods induction, life's construction, these instruct will save every living thing. Can't you see that life's connected?

  Stevie Wonder

  Philosophy, Construction, Connected

  Song: Race Babbling

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• Business is many things, the least of which is the balance sheet. It is a fluid, ever changing, living thing, sometimes building to great peaks, sometimes falling to crumbled lumps.

  Harold Geneen

  Business, Fall, Balance

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• Words are living things. They have personality, point of view... agenda.

  Hannibal

  Views, Personality, Agendas

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• Language is a living thing. It must survive in men's minds and on their tongues if it survives at all.

  Charlton Laird

  Men, Mind, Tongue

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• I would like to comment on the God fiber within each living thing. This essence, this fiber of love and grace, runs in every vein, no matter how deeply buried. Each person has a God fiber, whatever their actions or hurt they have caused you or others.

  Meredith L. Young-Sowers

  Love, Running, Peace

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• O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, even our brothers, the animals, to whom Thou gavest the earth as their home in common with us. We must remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song, has been a groan of pain. May we realize that they live, not for us alone, but for themselves and for Thee and that they love the sweetness of life.

  Saint Basil

  Song, Brother, Pain

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• All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou are bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Hate, Science, Men

  Frankenstein ch. 10 (1818)

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• The Bible makes clear a basic truth that we self-centered humans find difficult to accept, namely, that the natural universe was not created primarily for us. There is no doubt that God wants us to enjoy it and even use its resources to optimize a good life for ourselves. But the ultimate purpose of creation is worship. Nature and all living things were created to glorify God.

  Tony Campolo

  Good Life, Self, Doubt

  Tony Campolo (1995). “Carpe Diem: Seize the Day”, Thomas Nelson

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• I mean the whole thing about meditation and yoga is about connecting to the higher part of yourself, and then seeing that every living thing is connected in some way.

  Gillian Anderson

  Yoga, Mean, Meditation

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• The rooms of his apartment were full with the dog home again, convalescing. He was satisfied to know, even when she was out of sight, that somewhere in the apartment she was sleeping or eating or sitting watchfully. It was family, he guessed, more or less. Did most people want a house of living things at night, to know that in the dark around them other warm bodies slept? Such a house could even be the whole world.

  Lydia Millet

  Dog, Home, Sleep

  Lydia Millet (2009). “How the Dead Dream”, p.185, Counterpoint Press

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• You have plenty of courage, I am sure," answered Oz. "All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.

  L. Frank Baum

  Needs, Faces, Kind

  L. Frank Baum (1998). “The Wonderful World of Oz: The Wizard of Oz, The Emerald City of Oz, Glinda of Oz”, p.80, Penguin

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• In the past we have tried to make a distinction between animals which we acknowledge have some value and other which, having none, can be liquidated when we wish. This standard must be abandoned. Everything that lives has value simply as a living thing, as one of the manifestations of the mystery that is life.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Animal, Past, Wish

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• Learn to master yourself-to understand both your fears and your desires. That's the key to magic. Then, no one shall have any hold over you. Remember... the magic (sic)... is a living thing, joined to whomever it touches and changed by them as well... You must come to know everything-even your darkest corners. Especially those...Everything has its price.

  Libba Bray

  Keys, Over You, Magic

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• When I glanced at the chair, it started to shake. I’d like to think it was scared of me, but I rarely invoked that response in living things, let alone inanimate objects.

  Kelley Armstrong

  Thinking, Inanimate Objects, Scared

  Kelley Armstrong (2008). “Stolen: Number 2 in series”, p.130, Hachette UK

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• If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by 'we' I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better. It is a talent we have only barely begun to grasp.

  Bill Bryson

  Book, Mean, Appreciate

  Bill Bryson (2010). “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, p.573, Random House

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• Unfortunately, most people never observe the natural cycle of birth and death. They do not realize that for one living thing to survive, another living thing must die.

  Temple Grandin

  People, Birth, Realizing

  Temple Grandin (2009). “Thinking in Pictures”, p.141, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid.

  Mikhail Bulgakov

  Stupid, Light, People

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• The world is alive and no living thing has any remedy. That is our fortune.

  Roberto Bolano

  Alive, World, Fortune

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• Like every living thing its prime characteristic is a blind, unreasoned instinct to survive.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Blind, Instinct, Stranger In A Strange Land

  Robert A. Heinlein (2014). “Stranger in a Strange Land”, p.42, Hachette UK

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• Our sun is one of a 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living thing in that enormous immensity.

  Wernher von Braun

  Stars, Thinking, Would Be

  1960 In the NewYork Times, 29 Apr.

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• We are so used to the notion of our own inevitability as life's dominant species that it is hard to grasp that we are here only because of timely extraterrestrial bangs and other random flukes. The one thing we have in common with all other living things is that for nearly four billions years our ancestors have managed to slip through a series of closing doors every time we needed them to.

  Bill Bryson

  Doors, Years, Four

  Bill Bryson (2014). “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, p.319, Lulu Press, Inc

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• All little creatures are beautiful...every living thing when it first sees life is born in beauty. What they grow to be is a different matter.

  Brian Jacques

  Beautiful, Littles, Matter

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