Luther Burbank
I just "discovered" the wonderful mind of Luther Burbank, who's quote below serves as the preface for a new book I ordered:
I have long seen that each grain of knowledge I acquired, going to school to school in Nature was added to each other grain I possessed, that these grains grew into foundation stone; that the stones accumulated until I had a substructure, and on that substructure I could build me a house. And I have seen, too, that there are enough buildings in Nature’s system of knowledge to make a great city of wisdom.
I will never see that city completed; no man will. At best he may be able to construct during his lifetime one or two buildings, and perhaps to catch a vision of one or two streets and squares and parks and precincts of the whole. But the sublimity of the city—its endless boulevards, its imposing monuments, its transcendent capitol, its towering edifices, its vistas its sweeping panoramas--these we can only imagine, for the view we get of the structures of knowledge we ourselves are able to build up, grain by grain, rock by rock, tier by tier, story by story, through diligence and hard work, into one or two of the buildings we know are all there somewhere, to be builded.
When I think of this, I wonder why some men are content to erect nothing more than rude huts of knowledge, a little cabin of selfish learning, enough to house them while they amass money or gain power or win fame—and will not even try to raise some nobler structure of the wisdom Nature offers so freely and generously, and that any who come to her may have for the asking!
OTHER GEMS
In response to charges he promoted agnosticism:
Science is knowledge arranged and classified according to truth, facts and the general laws of Nature. It is simply a crossing from the things, to the essence of those things. Except through science there is no personal salvation, there is no national salvation.
My theory of the laws and underlying principles of plant-creation is in many respects opposed to the theories of the materialists. I am a sincere believer in a higher power than man's. Every atom, every molecule, plant, animal or planet, is only an aggregation of organized unit forces, which, though teeming with inconceivable power, are held in equilibrium by stronger forces for a time. All life on our planet is, so to speak, just on the outer fringe of this infinite ocean of force. The universe is not half dead, but all alive.
Advice for thinkers (and non-thinkers):
Less than fifteen per cent of the people do any original thinking on any subject. The greatest torture in the world for most people is to think.
It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. For those who do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while.
Looming cometary “prosecution”:
If you violate Nature's laws you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman.
