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Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus developed a classification system, Systema Naturae, the first scientific attempt to name species and group them according to relatedness. Throughout this time, essentialism—the idea that each species had
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“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.
It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
― Fahrenheit 451
It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
― Fahrenheit 451
“Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.”
― The Odyssey
― The Odyssey
“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”
― A Farewell to Arms
― A Farewell to Arms
“What is leadership, after all, but the blind choice of one route over another and the confident pretense that the decision was based on reason”
― Pompeii
― Pompeii
“What do you fear, lady?" [Aragorn] asked.
"A cage," [Éowyn] said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”
― The Return of the King
"A cage," [Éowyn] said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”
― The Return of the King
Michael’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Michael’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
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