Quotes of Loren Eiseley - somelinesforyou

“ Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up. As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean. He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?" The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean." "I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man. To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die." Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!" At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Man would not be man if his dreams did not exceed his grasp. ... Like John Donne, man lies in a close prison, yet it is dear to him. Like Donne's, his thoughts at times overleap the sun and pace beyond the body. If I term humanity a slime mold organism it is because our present environment suggest it. If I remember the sunflower forest it is because from its hidden reaches man arose. The green world is his sacred center. In moments of sanity he must still seek refuge there. ... If I dream by contrast of the eventual drift of the star voyagers through the dilated time of the universe, it is because I have seen thistledown off to new worlds and am at heart a voyager who, in this modern time, still yearns for the lost country of his birth. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Perhaps a creature of so much ingenuity and deep memory is almost bound to grow alienated from his world, his fellows, and the objects around him. He suffers from a nostalgia for which there is no remedy upon earth except as it is to be found in the enlightenment of the spiritsome ability to have a perceptive rather than an exploitive relationship with his fellow creatures. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ When man becomes greater than nature, nature, which gave us birth, will respond. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Tomorrow lurks in us, the latency to be all that was not achieved before. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ 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. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Each one of us is a statistical impossibility around which hover a million other lives that were never destined to be born. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Tomorrow lurks in us, the latency to be all that was not achieved before. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Tomorrow lurks in us, the latency to be all that was not achieved before. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Courage is ten, nine is the ability to escape. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Like the herd animals we are, we sniff warily at the strange one among us. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ The venture into space is meaningless unless it coincides with a certain interior expansion, an ever-growing universe within, to correspond with the far flight of the galaxies our telescopes follow from without. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ If you cannot bear the silence and the darkness, do not go there; if you dislike black night and yawning chasms, never make them your profession. If you fear the sound of water hurrying through crevices toward unknown and mysterious destinations, do not consider it… ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ If you cannot bear the silence and the darkness, do not go there; if you dislike black night and yawning chasms, never make them your profession. If you fear the sound of water hurrying through crevices toward unknown and mysterious destinations, do not consider it… ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Like the herd animals we are, we sniff warily at the strange one among us. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Tomorrow lurks in us, the latency to be all that was not achieved before. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Tomorrow lurks in us, the latency to be all that was not achieved before. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Tomorrow lurks in us, the latency to be all that was not achieved before. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ The journey is difficult, immerse. We will travel as far as we can, but we cannot in one lifetime see all that we would like to see or to learn all that we hunger to know. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ 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. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ God knows how many things a man misses by becoming smug and assuming that matters will take their own course. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ Each one of us is a statistical impossibility around which hover a million other lives that were never destined to be born. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ 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. ”

- Loren Eiseley

“ The journey is difficult, immerse. We will travel as far as we can, but we cannot in one lifetime see all that we would like to see or to learn all that we hunger to know. ”

- Loren Eiseley
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