352 Quotes by Diane Ackerman

  • Author Diane Ackerman
  • Quote

    These days, startling though the thought is, we control our own legacy. We’re not passive, we’re not helpless. We’re earth-movers. We can become Earth-restorers and Earth-guardians. We still have time and talent, and we have a great many choices. As I said at the beginning of this mental caravan, our mistakes are legion, but our imagination is immeasurable.

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  • Author Diane Ackerman
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    There was nothing to do but wait. It is always like this for naturalists, and for poets – the long hours of travel and preparation, and then the longer hours of waiting. All for that one electric, pulse-revving vision when the universe suddenly declares itself.

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  • Author Diane Ackerman
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    I’m an Earth ecstatic, and my creed is simple: All life is sacred, life loves life, and we are capable of improving our behavior toward one another. As basic as that is, for me it’s also tonic and deeply spiritual, glorifying the smallest life-form and embracing the most distant stars.

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  • Author Diane Ackerman
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    The brain is only three pounds of blood, dream, and electricity, and yet from that mortal stew come Beethoven’s sonatas. Dizzie Gillespie’s jazz. Audrey Hepburn’s wish to spend the last month of her life in Somalia, saving children.

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  • Author Diane Ackerman
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    Without memories we wouldn’t know who we are, how we once were, who we’d like to be in the memorable future. We are the sum of our memories.

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  • Author Diane Ackerman
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    All our senses feed the brain, and if it diets mainly on cruelty and suffering, how can it remain healthy? Change that diet, on purpose, train mentally to refocus the mind, and one nourishes the brain.

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  • Author Diane Ackerman
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    Not long ago the world looked on the dark ages with contempt for its brutality, yet here it is again, in full force, a lawless sadism unpolished by all the charms of religion and civilization.” Sitting.

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