Web Of Life Quotes (9 quotes)
All Nature is linked together by invisible bonds and every organic creature, however low, however feeble, however dependent, is necessary to the well-being of some other among the myriad forms of life.
From Man and Nature (1864), 109.
As a net is made up of a series of ties, so everything in this world is connected by a series of ties. If anyone thinks that the mesh of a net is an independent, isolated thing, he is mistaken. It is called a net because it is made up of a series of a interconnected meshes, and each mesh has its place and responsibility in relation to other meshes.
In Gary William Flake, The Computational Beauty of Nature (2000), 383.
English science … isolates the reptile or mollusk it assumes to explain; whilst reptile or mollusk only exists in system, in relation.
In essay, 'Literature', English Traits (1856), collected in Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays First and Second Series (1883), 341.
For many of us, water simply flows from a faucet, and we think little about it beyond this point of contact. We have lost a sense of respect for the wild river, for the complex workings of a wetland, for the intricate web of life that water supports.
Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity (1997), 184.
Here too all Forms of social Union find,
And hence let Reason, late, instruct mankind:
Here subterranean Works and Cities see,
There Towns aerial on the waving Tree.
Learn each small people’s Genius, Policies;
The Ants Republick, and the Realm of Bees;
How those in common all their stores bestow,
And Anarchy without confusion know.
And hence let Reason, late, instruct mankind:
Here subterranean Works and Cities see,
There Towns aerial on the waving Tree.
Learn each small people’s Genius, Policies;
The Ants Republick, and the Realm of Bees;
How those in common all their stores bestow,
And Anarchy without confusion know.
In 'Epistle III', Essay on Man,: Being the First Book of Ethic Epistles (1734), 47.
Nature, displayed in its full extent, presents us with an immense tableau, in which all the order of beings are each represented by a chain which sustains a continuous series of objects, so close and so similar that their difference would be difficult to define. This chain is not a simple thread which is only extended in length, it is a large web or rather a network, which, from interval to interval, casts branches to the side in order to unite with the networks of another order.
'Les Oiseaux Qui Ne Peuvent Voler', Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (1770), Vol. I, 394. Trans. Phillip R. Sloan.
Rachel Carson was the best thing America is capable of producing: a modest person, concerned, courageous, and profoundly right—all at the same time. Troubled by knowledge of an emerging threat to the web of life, she took pains to become informed, summoned her courage, breached her confines, and conveyed a diligently constructed message with eloquence enough to catalyze a new social movement. Her life addressed the promise and premise of being truly human.
In his Foreward to Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us (1950, 2003), xvi.
See dying Vegetables Life sustain,
See Life dissolving vegetate again.
All Forms that perish other forms supply,
By turns they catch the vital breath, and die.
See Life dissolving vegetate again.
All Forms that perish other forms supply,
By turns they catch the vital breath, and die.
In 'Epistle III', Essay on Man,: Being the First Book of Ethic Epistles (1734), 39.
The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth. All things are connected, like the blood which unites one family. Mankind did not weave the web of life. We are but one strand within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
Fictional speech from script for ABC TV movie, Home (1972). The words by the screenwriter were inspired from an Earth Day gathering in 1970, where Perry heard a historical account by physician Dr. Henry Smith. The doctor’s words were published in a Seattle newspaper, written up to 33 years after being present, when in Dec 1854 Chief Seattle made an impassioned speech, in the language of his own people, the Suquwamish. The Chief, with other tribal leaders, were meeting with the Territorial Governor who was trying to get them to sign away their lands and instead receive protection on a reservation. Dr. Smith may not have been fluent in the language of the Suquwamish, although he did make some notes at the time. But he wrote poetry, making embellishment or invention likely, so it is questionable whether his newspaper account is reliable in providing the Chief’s actual words. In turn, Perry has made clear that his script provided a fictional representation of the Chief. The televised quote, however became mythical, and is incorrectly passed along as attributed to Chief Seattle in 1854, but the truth is the words are contemporary, written by Perry, a screenwriter. Also seen as: “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
