Choices, more choices than we like afterward to believe, are made far backward in the innocence of childhood.
Loren EiseleyRead
One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Every action has consequences that extend beyond the immediate impact.
This quote highlights the interconnectedness of all things, suggesting that even the smallest actions, like picking a flower, can have far-reaching effects. Loren Eiseley implies that our choices and interactions with the world resonate in ways we may not fully comprehend, affecting other entities, represented metaphorically by the 'star'.
Themes
InterconnectednessConsequencesActionNatureLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about environmental preservation, one might say, 'Remember, one could not pluck a flower without troubling a star.'
More from Loren Eiseley
All quotes βSome degree of withdrawal serves to nurture man's creative powers. The artist and the scientist bring out of the dark void, like the mysterious universe itself, the unique, the strange, the unexpected. Numerous observers have testified upon the loneliness of the process.
Loren EiseleyRead
After chiding the theologian for his reliance on myth and miracle, science found itself in the unenviable position of having to create mythology of its own: namely, the assumption that what, after long effort, could not be proved to take place today had, in truth, taken place in the primeval past.
Loren EiseleyRead
Of all the unexpected qualities of an unexpected universe, the sheer organizing power of animal and plant metabolism is one of the most remarkable. . . . Where it reaches its highest development, in the human mind, we forget it completely. . . . So important does nature regard this unseen combustion . . . that a starving man's brain will be protected to the last while his body is steadily consumed.
Loren EiseleyRead
The need is not really for more brains, the need is now for a gentler, a more tolerant people than those who won for us against the ice, the tiger and the bear. The hand that hefted the ax, out of some old blind allegiance to the past fondles the machine gun as lovingly. It is a habit man will have to break to survive, but the roots go very deep.
Loren EiseleyRead
God knows how many things a man misses by becoming smug and assuming that matters will take their own course.
Loren EiseleyRead
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One who has been touched by grace will no longer look on those who stray as "those evil people" or "those poor people who need our help." Nor must we search for signs of "loveworthiness." Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.
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Like a good chess player, Satan is always trying to maneuver you into a position where you can save your castle only by losing your bishop.
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Don't be mysterious; there isn't the time.
E. M. ForsterRead