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“Perhaps it is only human nature to inflict suffering on anything that will endure suffering, whether by reason of its genuine humility, or indifference, or sheer helplessness.”
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“No occupation is more worthy of an intelligent and enlightened mind, than the study of Nature and natural objects; and whether we labour to investigate the structure and function of the human system, whether we direct our attention to the classification and habits of the animal kingdom, or prosecute our researches in the more pleasing and varied field of vegetable life, we shall constantly find some new object to attract our attention, some fresh beauties to excite our imagination, and some previously undiscovered source of gratification and delight.”
Source : Sir Joseph Paxton (1838). “A Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Dahlia”, p.1
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“If fortune wishes to make a man estimable, she gives him virtues; if she wishes to make him esteemed, she gives him success.”
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“Success is predictable.”
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“Man, do you think yours is the only soul? Look around you. Everything that you see quivers with being. Though your thoughts are free, one thing you do not think about: the whole. Beasts have a mind; respect it. Flowers too- look at one. Nature brought forth each petal. There is a mystery that sleeps in metal. Everything feels, and has power over you.”
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“His modesty amounts to deformity.”
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“The greatest, like Rembrandt, paint a gallant, a hag, and a carcass with equal passion and rapture; they love the truth as it is. Â They do not admit that anything can be ugly or evil; its existence justifies itself. Â This is because they know themselves to be part of an harmonious unity; to disdain any item of it would be to blaspheme the whole. Â The Thelemite is able to revel in any experience soever; in each he recognizes the tokens of ultimate Truth. Â It is surely obvious, even intellectually, that all phenomena are interdependent, and therefore involve each other.”
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“That planet has a considerable but moderate atmosphere. So that the inhabitants probably enjoy a situation in many respects similar to ours.”
Source : William Herschel (2013). “The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel”, p.156, Cambridge University Press
