Fossil Beds National

Famous quotes containing the words fossil, beds and/or national:

    The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied by geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit,—not a fossil earth, but a living earth; compared with whose great central life all animal and vegetable life is merely parasitic.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Nature in darkness groans
    And men are bound to sullen contemplation in the night:
    Restless they turn on beds of sorrow; in their inmost brain
    Feeling the crushing wheels, they rise, they write the bitter words
    Of stern philosophy & knead the bread of knowledge with tears & groans.
    William Blake (1757–1827)

    While I do not think it was so intended I have always been of the opinion that this turned out to be much the best for me. I had no national experience. What I have ever been able to do has been the result of first learning how to do it. I am not gifted with intuition. I need not only hard work but experience to be ready to solve problems. The Presidents who have gone to Washington without first having held some national office have been at great disadvantage.
    Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)