By contrast with history, evolution is an unconscious process. Another, and perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say tha...t evolution is a natural process, history a human one.... Insofar as we treat man as a part of nature--for instance in a biological survey of evolution--we are precisely not treating him as a historical being. As a historically developing being, he is set over against nature, both as a knower and as a doer.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree from its seed, or of a fowl from its egg, evolution exclu...des creation and all other kinds of supernatural intervention.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In a man's letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him... is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Old age cannot be cured. An epoch or a civilization cannot be prevented from breathing its last. A natural process that happens to... all flesh and all human manifestations cannot be arrested. You can only wring your hands and utter a beautiful swan song.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In contrast to revenge, which is the natural, automatic reaction to transgression and which, because of the irreversibility of the... action process can be expected and even calculated, the act of forgiving can never be predicted; it is the only reaction that acts in an unexpected way and thus retains, though being a reaction, something of the original character of action.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for... the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In my state, on the basis of the separate but equal doctrine, we have made enormous strides over the years in the education of bot...h races. Personally, I think it would have been sounder judgment to allow that progress to continue through the process of natural evolution. However, there is no point crying about spilt milk.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In written communication, the imagination converts codes into a version of reality, and the mind reasons its way to judgments, con...victions, and actions. With television, by contrast, movement, sound, and color rush experiences directly to the senses. The process moves from image to impression, to emotional impulse, and then to action. Sensation and emotional intensity dominate. The reflection and reasoning which verbal communication demand are bypassed. Another profound difference between television and writing is the way they collect and disseminate knowledge. Television absorbs the scenes within the range of its lenses, records the images, then diffuses them like a gas. It creates the illusion of reproducing life in its natural, multidimensional state. Lan guages, by contrast, convert life into artificial codes and organize them into artificial patterns.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could fore...tell achievement.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »