It is the business of man to become acquainted with the material universe in all of its manifestations, so far as may be possible, in order to provide a foundation of knowledge on which the reasoning mind of man may increasingly build.
John A. WidtsoeThere are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, " This is new, and therefore better.
John BrunnerIn every remote corner of the world there are people like Carl Jones and Don Merton who have devoted their lives to saving threatened species. Very often, their determination is all that stands between an endangered species and extinction.
But why do they bother? Does it really matter if the Yangtze river dolphin, or the kakapo, or the northern white rhino, or any other species live on only in scientists' notebooks?
Well, yes, it does. Every animal and plant is an integral part of its environment: even Komodo dragons have a major role to play in maintaining the ecological stability of their delicate island homes. If they disappear, so could many other species. And conservation is very much in tune with our survival. Animals and plants provide us with life-saving drugs and food, they pollinate crops and provide important ingredients or many industrial processes. Ironically, it is often not the big and beautiful creatures, but the ugly and less dramatic ones, that we need most.
Even so, the loss of a few species may seem irrelevant compared to major environmental problems such as global warming or the destruction of the ozone layer. But while nature has considerable resilience, there is a limit to how far that resilience can be stretched. No one knows how close to the limit we are getting. The darker it gets, the faster we're driving.
There is one last reason for caring, and I believe that no other is necessary. It is certainly the reason why so many people have devoted their lives to protecting the likes of rhinos, parakeets, kakapos, and dolphins. And it is simply this: the world would be a poorer, darker, lonelier place without them.
Tags: wisdom life animals biology beauty world nature earth conservation
Every concept of reality is all in our head, belief is what makes truth.
Christy Leigh StewartYour pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Kahlil GibranTags: wisdom truth spiritual self-empowerment
One may enter the literary parlor via just about any door, be it the prison door, the madhouse door, or the brothel door. There is but one door one may not enter it through, which is the child room door. The critics will never forgive you such. The great Rudyard Kipling is one of a number of people to have suffered from this. I keep wondering to myself what this peculiar contempt towards anything related to childhood is all about.
Michael EndeTags: wisdom literature childhood children-s-books good-sense adults children-s
The master of the garden is the one who waters it, trims the branches, plants the seeds, and pulls the weeds. If you merely stroll through the garden, you are but an acolyte.
Vera NazarianTags: wisdom experience knowledge learning world gardening responsibility stewardship effort student learn garden caring master guardian responsible planting acolyte gardener steward
The waters of spirituality are forever changing and forever constant. Prejudice or fixed ideas can only weigh you down and remove you from the flow. - The Book of Metanoia (D. Williamsen)
Dannye WilliamsenTags: wisdom inspirational
I must not, like the quietists, reduce all religion to a denial of any specific action, despising all other means, since what makes perfection is God's order, and the means he ordains is best for the soul.
Jean-Pierre de CaussadeTags: wisdom life god religion p46
All simple souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us proceed each one along our path to the same goal, united in purpose and by means of God's order which, in its great variety, is in us all.
Jean-Pierre de CaussadeTags: wisdom life god religion p46
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