#wat

He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer- excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained observer to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. ↗

— Arthur Conan Doyle

#john-watson #love #sherlock-holmes #love

Water belongs to us all. Nature did not make the sun one person's property, nor air, nor water, cool and clear. ↗

— Michael Simpson

#property #sun #water #nature

A book floated down the Amper River. A boy jumped in, caught up to it, and held it in his right hand. He grinned. He stood waist-deep in the icy, Decemberish water. “How about a kiss, Saumensch?” he said. ↗

— Markus Zusak

#water

The small wisdom is like water in a glass: clear, transparent, pure. The great wisdom is like the water in the sea: dark, mysterious, impenetrable. ↗

— Rabindranath Tagore

#water

At dawn the waves looked like mountain ranges tipped with gold as sunbeams slanted low under burgundy clouds. ↗

— David Mitchell

#nature #sun #water #waves #nature

The whole foot is a document of motion, inscribed by repeated action. Babies - from those first foetal footfalls, the kneading of sole against womb-wall, turning themselves like astronauts in black space - have already creased their soles by the time they emerge into the world. ↗

— Robert Macfarlane

#nature-writing #walking-on-water #nature

What we call life is only talk of nature. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #life #literature #literature-quotes #nature

The lady who works in the grocery store at the corner of my block is called Denise, and she's one of America's great unpublished novelists. Over the years she's written forty-two romantic novels, none of which have ever reached the bookstores. I, however, have been fortunate enough to hear the plots of the last twenty-seven of these recounted in installments by the authoress herself every time I drop by the store for a jar of coffee or can of beans, and my respect for Denise's literary prowess knows no bounds. So, naturally enough, when I found myself faced with the daunting task of actually starting the book you now hold in your hands, it was Denise I turned to for advice. ↗

— Dave Gibbons

#books #novelist #watchmen #writing #nature

people have a natural tendency to anthropomorphize their pets, to ascribe human perceptions and intentions to the animal where none exist ↗

— Dean Koontz

#dogs #people #watchers #nature

Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people. Since the very birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to it. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write, sing and dance about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it. ↗

— Mikhail Gorbachev

#religion