"We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still."
-Lewis Thomas
FutureView Quote
"If you want to use a cliche you must take full responsibility for it yourself and not try to fob it off on anon., or on society.“
-Lewis Thomas
posted in Society
Other Quotes by Lewis Thomas
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"Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labour, exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television."
-Lewis Thomas
WarView Quote
"I won't compare ants and people, but ants give us a useful model of how single members of a community can become so organized that they end up resembling, in effect, one big collective brain. Our own exploding population and communication technology are leading us that way."
-Lewis Thomas
TechnologyView Quote
"We're as clever as we think we are, but we'll be a lot cleverer when we learn to use not just one brain but to pool huge numbers of brains. We're at a level technologically where we can share information and think collectively about our problems. We do it in science all the time - there's no reason why we can't do it in other endeavors."
-Lewis Thomas
ScienceView Quote
"The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from Science, along with behaviour control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers."
-Lewis Thomas
ScienceView Quote
"Survival, in the cool economics of biology, means simply the persistence of one's own genes in the generations to follow."
-Lewis Thomas
CoolView Quote
Same Category
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"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."
-Vladimir Lenin
SocietyView Quote
"How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?"
-Paul Sweeney
SocietyView Quote
"There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other."
-Eric Hoffer
SocietyView Quote
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-John Lennon
SocietyView Quote
"Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all."
-Edmund Burke
SocietyView Quote
"Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another."
-Sigmund Freud
SocietyView Quote