William John Swainson/works On Natural History

Famous quotes containing the words john, works, natural and/or history:

    What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
    Bible: New Testament, Matthew 11:7-9.

    Jesus speaking about John the Baptist.

    I look on trade and every mechanical craft as education also. But let me discriminate what is precious herein. There is in each of these works an act of invention, an intellectual step, or short series of steps taken; that act or step is the spiritual act; all the rest is mere repetition of the same a thousand times.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    The unreal is natural, so natural that it makes of unreality the most natural of anything natural. That is what America does, and that is what America is.
    Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

    Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.
    Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)