One thing is made of another, and nature allows no new creation except at the price of death.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that everything in nature is interconnected, and new beginnings often come at the cost of endings.
Lucretius expresses the idea that all things in nature are part of a cycle, where the creation of something new is always accompanied by the destruction or passing away of something else. This reflects the fundamental principle of change inherent in the natural world, implying that life is sustained through a continuous process of transformation and renewal.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a nature documentary about ecosystems and the cycles of life.
Huts they made then, and fire, and skins for clothing, And a woman yielded to one man in wedlock... ... Common, to see the offspring they had made; The human race began to mellow then. Because of fire their shivering forms no longer Could bear the cold beneath the covering sky.
No single thing abides; but all things flow. Fragment to fragment clings - the things thus grow Until we know them and name them. By degrees They melt, and are no more the things we know.
What is food to one man is bitter poison to others.
The water hollows out the stone, not by force but drop by drop.
Thus the sum of things is ever being reviewed, and mortals dependent one upon another. Some nations increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and like runners pass on the torch of life.
Many animals even now spring out of the soil, Coalescing from the rains and the heat of the sun. Small wonder, then, if more and bigger creatures, Full-formed, arose from the new young earth and sky. The breed, for instance, of the dappled birds Shucked off their eggshells in the springtime, as Crickets in summer will slip their slight cocoons All by themselves, and search for food and life. Earth gave you, then, the first of mortal kinds, For all the fields were soaked with warmth and moisture.
The sun was a molten coin burning a circle in the low-hanging overcast, surrounded by a fairy-ring of moisture.
There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind.
No one person has to do it all but if each one of us follow our heart and our own inclinations we will find the small things that we can do to create a sustainable future and a healthy environment.
Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.
What would become of the garden if the gardener treated all the weeds and slugs and birds and trespassers as he would like to be treated, if he were in their place?
To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.
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