The whole life lies in the verb seeing.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
The stars are laboratories in which the evolution of matter proceeds in the direction of large molecules.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that stars play a crucial role in the formation and evolution of complex matter, particularly large molecules.
In this quote, Pierre Teilhard De Chardin emphasizes the importance of stars as sites of scientific activity where the processes of evolution occur on a cosmic scale. He highlights that in these celestial 'laboratories', the transformation and complexity of matter evolve, showcasing the universe's capacity to create intricate structures from simpler elements over time. This notion reflects a deep connection between the cosmos and the fundamental processes of life and matter.
Themes
StarsEvolutionMatterMoleculesCosmos
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about astrophysics, one might use this quote to illustrate the significance of stars in the chemical evolution of the universe.
More from Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
All quotes βReligion and science are the two conjugated faces or phases of one and the same complete act of knowledge - the only one which can embrace the past and future of evolution and so contemplate, measure and fulfil them.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
The mineral world is a much more supple and mobile world than could be imagined by the science of the ancients. Vaguely analogous to the metamorphoses of living creatures, there occurs in the most solid rocks, as we now know, perpetual transformation of a mineral species.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
We may, perhaps, imagine that the creation was finished long ago. But that would be quite wrong. It continues still more magnificently, and at the highest levels of the world.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
If there is one thing I fear less than everything else, it is, I believe, persecution for my opinions. There are a good many points about which I may be diffident, but when it comes to questions of Truth and intellectual independence, there is no holding me - I can envisage no finer end than to sacrifice oneself for a conviction.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
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But I hope that it will also be demonstrated soon that in my experiments in the West I was not merely beholding a vision, but had caught sight of a great and profound truth.
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Does anyone believe that the difference between the Lebesgue and Riemann integrals can have physical significance, and that whether say, an airplane would or would not fly could depend on this difference? If such were claimed, I should not care to fly in that plane.
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Science is a collaborative enterprise, spanning the generations. When it permits us to see the far side of some new horizon, we remember those who prepared the way - seeing for them also.
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If you represent the Earth's lifetime by a single year, say from January when it was made to December, the 21st-century would be a quarter of a second in June - a tiny fraction of the year. But even in this concertinaed cosmic perspective, our century is very, very special: the first when humans can change themselves and their home planet.
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