Nature, love-making

When locals come to eat in my restaurant, the patron said with a grin, they always make the same joke. They say that the street name of Balsamo s house was changed because everyone in the Albergheria always called it via Pisciata rather than via Perciata. In the market, when the call of nature comes, he explained, Balsamo s lane is the best spot to go. That s why it stinks of piss. Piss, they say, was Cagliostro s first elixir. They love him for that. 

Dedication Page of The Mineral Wealth of Mexico and Its Present State of Development, which S. Ramirez wrote for the New Orleans Exposition of 1884. Translation To the memory of the distinguished scientist, expert mine operator, and celebrated mineralogist, D. Andres Manuel del Rio, whose well deserved fame designated him to be the introducer of the natural sciences into our country, whose stainless love for Mexico makes him figure among our most illustrious fellow citizens, and from whose scientific books our generations of mine operators have imbibed instruction, this unimportant work is dedicated as a tribute by the most respectful of his admirers. ... 

Austrian biologist Paul Kammerer once compared events in our world to the tops of waves in an ocean. We notice the tops of the isolated waves, but beneath the surface there may be some kind of synchronistic mechanism that connects them. Whatever you believe about such far-out speculation, be humble. Our brains, which evolved to make us run from lions on the Ethiopian plains, may not be constructed to penetrate the infinite veil of reality. We may need science, computers, brain augmentation, and even literature and poetry to help us tear away the veils. Einstein himself realized the insufficiency of the human mind when he wrote, My feeling is religious insofar as I am imbued with the consciousness of the insufficiency of the human mind to understand more deeply the harmony of the Universe which we try to formulate as laws of nature. For those of you who read the Neoreality book series, look for the hidden mechanism, feel the connections, pierce the cosmic shroud, and sail on the shoreless sea of love. ... 

At other times Stendhal, looking back, observes himself to have been natural, yet to have failed to benefit from it. This, I believe, is a central problem in Stendhal s life and fiction a person who is capable of inspiring love in another is so by virtue of character traits that also make it impossible for him or her to reach out to the other and consummate the love. The happy few, the great souls, do not reveal themselves to each other. Indeed they cannot, for in doing so they would reveal themselves not to be among the elect. Stendhal frequently refers to his pudeur, a term with overtones of modesty, delicacy and shame.11 By implication, this is what makes him worthy of being loved by definition, it is what prevents him from telling his love. 

As she was making this discourse, I saw Nature approaching, and presently without delay I went straight on to meet her, and humbly to salute her. But truly she first bowed to me, giving me the salutation. Then Reason said, see Nature here, let it be all your care to love her, for it is she will make you the prudent Master of her Work. 

When we look at the glory of stars and galaxies in the sky and the glory of forests and flowers in the living world around us, it is evident that God loves diversity. Perhaps the universe is constructed according to the principle of maximum diversity, a principle that says the laws of nature... are such as to make the universe as interesting as possible. As a result, life is possible, but not too easy. 

It is impossible to read much of Le Corbusier or to see many of his architectural drawings without noticing his love (mania ) for simple, repetitive lines and his horror of complexity. He makes a personal commitment to austere lines and represents that commitment as an essential characteristic of human nature. In his own words, an infinity of combinations is possible when innumerable and diverse elements are brought together. But the human mind loses itself and becomes fatigued by such a labyrinth of possibilities. Control becomes impossible. The spiritual failure that must result is disheartening. Reason. .. is an unbroken straight line. Thus, in order to save himself from this... 

I want to make a picture of a friend an artist who dreams of great things, who works (he way a yii tingale sings because that is his nature. The man will be blonde. I want to instUl in the picture the wonder and the love that I feel for him. 

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