Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless, peacocks and lilies for instance.
- John Ruskin
Are we, finally, speaking of nature or culture when we speak of a rose (nature), that has been bred (culture) so that its blossoms (nature) make men imagine (culture) the sex of women (nature)?
It may be this sort of confusion that we need more of.
- Michael Pollan
At dawn I asked the lotus,
'What is the meaning of life?'
Slowly she opened her hand
with nothing in it.
- Debra Woolard Bender
If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,
And of thy meager store
Two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.
- Sheikh Muslih-uddin Saadi Shirazi