Happiness doesn't require laughter, only well-being and a sense that the world is breaking someone else's heart, not mine. Diane Ackerman More Quotes by Diane Ackerman More Quotes From Diane Ackerman The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be to understand and protect nature's precarious balance, let alone the balance of our own human nature. Diane Ackerman distancehuman-naturebalance History is an agreed-upon fiction. Diane Ackerman historyfiction Home is where the heart is, we say, rubbing the flint of one abstraction against another. Diane Ackerman home-is-where-the-heart-ishomeheart Horses have made civilization possible. Diane Ackerman horsemadecivilization Smell is the mute sense, the one without words. Diane Ackerman mutesmell hope and uncertainty [are] the twin ingredients necessary for romance to thrive. ... Nothing begins with so much excitement and hope, or fails as often, as love. Diane Ackerman ingredientsromancetwins the biggest threat to the religious experience may well come from organized religion itself. Diane Ackerman threatreligiousmay As anyone who has received or dispensed psychotherapy knows, it's a profession whose mainspring is love. Nearly everyone who visits a therapist has a love disorder of one sort or another, and each has a story to tell - of love lost or denied, love twisted or betrayed, love perverted or shackled to violence. Broken attachments litter the office floors like pick-up sticks. People appear with frayed seams and spilling pockets. Diane Ackerman lost-loveattachmentpeople All relationships change the brain - but most important are the intimate bonds that foster or fail us, altering the delicate circuits that shape memories, emotions and that ultimate souvenir, the self. Diane Ackerman selfbrainmemories As people flock to urban centers where ground space is limited, cities with green walls and roofs and skyscraper farms offer improved health and well-being, renewable resources, reliable food supply, and relief to the environment. Diane Ackerman wallspacecities Our sense of safety depends on predictability, so anything living outside the usual rules we suspect to be an outlaw, a ghoul. Diane Ackerman safetyusualghouls So before I start work on a book, I'm like a pregnant mole - I obsessively tidy and order my closets and everything in my study. Because there's such a cascade of images and ideas that I'm grapping with mentally, I couldn't also be in a chaotic setting. Diane Ackerman orderbookideas As the most social apes, we inhabit a mirror-world in which every important relationship, whether with spouse, friend or child, shapes the brain, which in turn shapes our relationships. Diane Ackerman important-relationshipsmirrorschildren One of the keystones of romantic love - and also of the ecstatic religion practiced by mystics - is the powerful desire to become one with the beloved. Diane Ackerman romantic-lovepowerfuldesire When you consider something like death, after which (there being no news flash to the contrary) we may well go out like a candle flame, then it probably doesn't matter if we try too hard, are awkward sometimes, care for one another too deeply, are excessively curious about nature, are too open to experience, enjoy a nonstop expense of the senses in an effort to know life intimately and lovingly. Diane Ackerman life-and-deatheffortflames The more we exile ourselves from nature, the more we crave its miracle waters. Diane Ackerman exilemiraclewater I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. Diane Ackerman Just as our ancient ancestors drew animals on cave walls and carved animals from wood and bone, we decorate our homes with animal prints and motifs, give our children stuffed animals to clutch, cartoon animals to watch, animal stories to read. Diane Ackerman wallscartoonanimalchildren I've always loved scuba diving and the cell-tickling feel of being underwater, though it poses unique frustrations. Alone, but with others, you may share the same sights and feelings, but you can't communicate well. Diane Ackerman lovedalonefeelyou Gardeners may create order briefly out of chaos, but nature always gets the last word, and what it says is usually untidy by human standards. But I find all states of nature beautiful, and because I want to delight in my garden, not rule it, I just accept my yen to tame the chaos on one day and let the Japanese beetles run riot on the next. Diane Ackerman daygardennaturebeautiful
