#is

We are told that the trouble with modern man is that he has been trying to detach himself from nature... In this scenario, Man comes on as a stupendous lethal force, and the Earth is pictured as something delicate, like rising bubbles at the surface of a country pond, or flights of fragile birds. ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#birds #bubbles #comes #country #delicate

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

#animal #away #creatures #discontent #dying

We habitually engage in meddling with nature. Until this century most of this meddling was good. Witness the preservation of the European countryside. But since then we've smoked it up and littered it and dumped too much in too many waters. I don't think it's our privilege to behave this way. ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#century #countryside #dumped #engage #european

We live in a dancing matrix of viruses; they dart, rather like bees, from organism to organism, from plant to insect to mammal to me and back again, and into the sea, tugging along pieces of this genome, strings of genes from that, transplanting grafts of DNA, passing around heredity as though at a great party. ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#along #around #back #bees #dancing

The ability to speak is a short cut to distinction. It puts a man in the limelight, raises him head and shoulders above the crowd. ↗

— Lowell Thomas

#above #crowd #cut #distinction #head

I get called all kinds of things - an investigative comedian, a comedian activist - I've lost track of what my job title is. ↗

— Mark Thomas

#called #comedian #get #i #investigative

People ask whether I put the politics first, journalism first or the comedy first; it doesn't really matter. I'm just playing with the cards that I have been dealt because I really love doing what I do. ↗

— Mark Thomas

#because #been #cards #comedy #dealt

Were British protesters, armed with little more than a frisbee and a bag of plastic toy soldiers, really in danger of being shot by the US military in Gloucestershire? ↗

— Mark Thomas

#bag #being #british #danger #frisbee

I realize now that I was a feminist and the minute I heard the word I certainly knew it meant me, but at that time I don't think we had the label yet. But there's no doubt about it that I was born a feminist. ↗

— Marlo Thomas

#born #certainly #doubt #feminist #had

When I look back at those pictures of my mother performing - and listen to her recordings - it makes me sad to think that all of that joy she found in her work came to an end. I wish she hadn't had to make that sacrifice, even if it was for the benefit of my father and siblings and me. ↗

— Marlo Thomas

#benefit #came #end #even #father