Lewis Thomas Quotes about Nature

The greatest single achievement of nature to date was surely the invention of the molecule DNA.

The greatest single achievement of nature to date was surely the invention of the molecule DNA.

Nature, Science, Dna

Lewis Thomas (1990). “A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays”

It is the very strangeness of nature that makes science engrossing. That ought to be at the center of science teaching. There are more than seven-times-seven types of ambiguity in science, awaiting analysis. The poetry of Wallace Stevens is crystal-clear alongside the genetic code.

Lewis Thomas

Nature, Teaching, Science

Lewis Thomas (1984). “Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony”, Bantam

We are educated to be amazed by the infinite variety of life forms in nature. We are, I believe, only at the beginning of being flabbergasted by its unity.

Lewis Thomas

Inspirational, Nature, Educational

Montaigne simply turns his mind loose and writes whatever he feels like writing. Mostly, he wants to say that reason is not a special, unique gift of human beings, marking us off from the rest of nature.

Lewis Thomas

Nature, Writing, Science

The central task of science is to arrive, stage by stage, at a clearer comprehension of nature, but this does not at all mean, as it is sometimes claimed to mean, a search for mastery over nature.

Lewis Thomas

Nature, Mean, Science

Lewis Thomas (1990). “A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays”

We have dominated and overruled nature, and from now on the earth is ours, a kitchen garden until we learn to make our own chlorophyll and float it out in the sun inside plastic mebranes. We will build Scarsdale on Mount Everest.

Lewis Thomas

Nature, Learning, Science