The Earth is beautiful, and bright, and kindly, but that is not all. The Earth is also terrible, and dark, and cruel. The rabbit shrieks dying in the green meadows. The mountains clench their great hands full of hidden fire. There are sharks in the sea, and there is cruelty in men’s eyes.

Her concern with landscapes and living creatures was passionate. This concern, feebly called, "the love of nature" seemed to Shevek to be something much broader than love. There are souls, he thought, whose umbilicus has never been cut. They never got weaned from the universe. They do not understand death as an enemy; they look forward to rotting and turning into humus. It was strange to see Takver take a leaf into her hand, or even a rock. She became an extension of it, it of her.

There are souls, he thought, whose umbilicus has never been cut. They never got weaned from the universe. They do not understand death as an enemy; they look forward to rotting and turning into humus.

This concern, feebly called 'love of nature', seemed to Shevek to be something much broader than love. There are souls, he thought, whose umbilicus has never been cut. They never got weaned from the universe. They do not understand death as an enemy; they look forward to rotting and turning into humus.

And everything we do finally serves evil, because that's what we are. Greed and cruelty. I look at the world, at the forests and the mountains here, the sky, and it's all right, as it should be. But we aren't. People aren't. We're wrong. We do wrong. No animal does wrong. How could they? But we can, and we do. And we never stop.

Sé lo que es la realidad. Un hombre con sentido de la realidad es aquél que conoce el mundo y que también conoce sus propios sueños. Ustedes no son sanos: no hay entre ustedes un solo hombre que sepa soñar. Ustedes duermen, se despiertan y olvidan lo que han soñado, y vuelven a dormir y a despertar, y así transcurre para ustedes toda la vida, ¡y creen que eso es la existencia, la vida, la realidad! Ustedes no son niños, son adultos, pero dementes.