Quote

There is a way of beholding nature which is a form of prayer, a way of minding something with such clarity and aliveness that the rest of the world recedes. It . . . gives the brain a small vacation.

Diane Ackerman

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Diane Ackerman
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: October 7
Author
Naturalist
Non-Fiction Writer
Poet
Screenwriter
Writer
Waukegan
Illinois
Form
Clarity
Giving
Gives
Something
Rest
Way
Prayer
Recedes
World
Small
Beholding
Brain
Aliveness
Inspirational
Minding
Nature
Vacation

More quotes by Diane Ackerman

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Home is where the heart is, we say, rubbing the flint of one abstraction against another.
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We would lie on coral sand, below sugary stars, watching Cassiopeia mount her throne and the Great Bear wash its paws in the South. I would say, I have a secret to tell you. And, folding me in your arms, boyish and sly, you would answer: Whisper it into my mouth.
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No matter how politely one says it, we owe our existence to the farts of blue-green algae.
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What an odd, ruminating, noisy, self-interrupting conversation we conduct with ourselves from birth to death.
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Because we can't escape our ancient hunger to live close to nature, we encircle the house with lawns and gardens, install picture windows, adopt pets and Boston ferns, and scent everything that touches our lives.
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habit, a particularly insidious thug who chokes passion and smothers love. Habit puts us on autopilot.
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Look at your feet. You are standing in the sky. When we think of the sky, we tend to look up, but the sky actually begins at the earth.
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Variety is the pledge that matter makes to living things.
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We're losing biodiversity globally at an alarming rate, and we need a cornucopia of different plants and animals, for the planet's health and our own.
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Culture is what people invent when they have lost nature.
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Life is a thing that mutates without warning, not always in enviable ways. All part of the improbable adventure of being alive, of being a brainy biped with giant dreams on a crazy blue planet.
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Choice is a signature of our species.
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We can't enchant the world, which makes its own magic but we can enchant ourselves by paying deep attention
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I hate the fearful trimming of possibilities that age brings.
Diane Ackerman
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We have vexed and bothered every plant and every animal on every continent.
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What would dawn have been like, had you awakened? It would have sung through your bones. All I can do this morning is let it sing through mine.
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Not much is known about alligators. They don't train well. And they're unwieldy and rowdy to work with in laboratories.
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Flight is nothing but an attitude in motion.
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Wonder is a bulky emotion. When you let it fill your heart and mind, there isn't room for anxiety, distress or anything else.
Diane Ackerman
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Wonder is the heaviest element on the periodic table. Even a tiny fleck of it stops time.
Diane Ackerman