Don't just live the length of your life - live the width of it as well.
Diane AckermanRead
Devising a vocabulary for gardening is like devising a vocabulary for sex. There are the correct Latin names, but most people invent euphemisms. Those who refer to plants by Latin name are considered more expert, if a little pedantic.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote compares the specialized language of gardening to that of intimate matters, highlighting how people often use euphemisms instead of precise terminology.
Diane Ackerman's quote explores the complexities and nuances of language in both gardening and intimate relationships. It suggests that just as gardening has its own technical jargon with Latin names that signify expertise, sex also has its specific terminology, yet many choose to use softer, euphemistic words instead. This reflects a broader tendency in human communication to navigate personal or delicate subjects with less direct language, revealing both the expertise of those who use precise terms and the comfort found in euphemism.
Themes
GardeningLanguageEuphemismExpertiseCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about horticulture, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of language in conveying expertise.
More from Diane Ackerman
All quotes →We try to exile ourselves more and more from nature - not always consciously: We build houses; we dismiss nature; nature has to be outside, because we're inside. God forbid something like a cockroach comes inside, or some dust.
Diane AckermanRead
We ogle plants and animals up close on television, the Internet and in the movies. We may not worship the animals we see, but we still regard them as necessary physical and spiritual companions. Technological nature can't completely satisfy that yearning.
Diane AckermanRead
Because IQ tests favor memory skills and logic, overlooking artistic creativity, insight, resiliency, emotional reserves, sensory gifts, and life experience, they can't really predict success, let alone satisfaction.
Diane AckermanRead
American writer_x000D_ _x000D_ 1803-1882_x000D_ _x000D_ Play is our brain's favorite way of learning.
Diane AckermanRead
In rare moments of deep play, we can lay aside our sense of self, shed time's continuum, ignore pain, and sit quietly in the absolute present, watching the world's ordinary miracles. No mind or heart hobbles. No analyzing or explaining. No questing for logic. No promises. No goals. No relationships. No worry. One is completely open to whatever drama may unfold.
Diane AckermanRead
Similar quotes
Climate change: Never before in history have human beings been called on to act collectively in defence of the Earth
Desmond TutuRead
I know that the precise magnitude and patterns of climate change cannot be fully predicted. But global warming clearly is a growing, long-term threat with profound consequences. And make no mistake about it, it will take decades to reverse.
William J. ClintonRead
Coyotes have the gift of seldom being seen; they keep to the edge of vision and beyond, loping in and out of cover on the plains and highlands. And at night, when the whole world belongs to them, they parley at the river with the dogs, their higher, sharper voices full of authority and rebuke. They are an old council of clowns, and they are listened to.
N. Scott MomadayRead
As one looks across the barren stretches of the pack, it is sometimes difficult to realise what teeming life exists immediately beneath its surface.
Robert Falcon ScottRead
I climb, I backtrack. I float. I ramble my way home.
Mary OliverRead
Another day it occurred to me that time as we know it doesn't exist in a lawn, since grass never dies or is allowed to flower and set seed. Lawns are nature purged of sex or death. No wonder Americans like them so much.
Michael PollanRead