Rare Earth Elements

Famous quotes containing the words rare, earth and/or elements:

    Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in the world. A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.
    Samuel Butler (1835–1902)

    You mean that this little pebble’s been out there hot-roddin’ around the universe?
    —Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Mooch, The Blob, examining the “meteor” that carried the Blob to earth (1958)

    The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature—were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)