American - Scientist | November 25, 1913 - December 3, 1993
Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise.
Lewis Thomas
SmallThinkSurpriseYouProbability
I won't compare ants and people, but ants give us a useful model of how single members of a community can become so organized that they end up resembling, in effect, one big collective brain. Our own exploding population and communication technology are leading us that way.
CommunicationTechnologyCommunity
Human language... prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand.
LanguageHandMatterHumanUs
The great secret of doctors, known only to their wives, but still hidden from the public, is that most things get better by themselves; most things, in fact, are better in the morning.
MorningGreatMedicalBetterHidden
It is from the progeny of this parent cell that we all take our looks; we still share genes around, and the resemblance of the enzymes of grasses to those of whales is in fact a family resemblance.
FamilyParentLooksWhalesGenes
We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still.
FutureAnimalPresentWorryEarth
Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind.
WorkMusicEffortMindListening
If you want to use a cliche you must take full responsibility for it yourself and not try to fob it off on anon., or on society.
ResponsibilityYourselfSocietyYou
Any species capable of producing, at this earliest, juvenile stage of its development... the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, cannot be all bad.
MusicBadDevelopmentCapableStage
If we are to be destroyed we will do it ourselves by warfare with thermonuclear weaponry.
WillDestroyedOurselvesWarfare
My father was a doctor, and I admired him and got along well with him. He took me with him on house calls. We were living in Flushing, which was then a sleepy village of 25,000 - before the subway got there. I've been sure I wanted to be a doctor since I was about 12.
FatherMeDoctorHouseVillageHim
I don't want to be reincarnated, that's for sure. When you've had rewarding experiences in your life - a loving family, friends - you don't need additional reassurances that you're going to do something with a new cast of characters. I'd just as soon pass.
LifeFamilyFriendsYouLovingNew
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Lewis Thomas quotes