Julie

“One way to explain the complexity and unpredictability of historical systems, despite their ultimate determinacy, is to note that long chains of causation may separate final effects from ultimate causes lying outside the domain of that field of science.”
― Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

“Of the seven deadly sins, surely it is pride that most afflicts the gardener.”
― Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education

“As this book will show, objectively defined races simply do not exist. Even Arthur Mourant realized that fact nearly fifty years ago, when he wrote: 'Rather does a study of blood groups show a heterogeneity in the proudest nation and support the view that the races of the present day are but temporary integrations in the constant process of . . . mixing that marks the history of every living species.' The temptation to classify the human species into categories which have no objective basis is an inevitable but regrettable consequence of the gene frequency system when it is taken too far. For several years the study of human genetics got firmly bogged down in the intellectually pointless (and morally dangerous) morass of constructing ever more detailed classifications of human population groups.”
― Bryan Sykes, The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry

“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax