“To me, human life in all its forms, individual and aggregate, is a perpetual wonder; the flora of the earth and sea is full of beauty and of mystery which science seeks to understand; the fauna of land and ocean is not less wonderful; the world which holds them both, and the great universe that folds it in on every side, are still more wonderful, complex, and attractive to the contemplating mind.”
— Theodore Parker (1810 – 1860)
Also: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”
— Theodore Parker from a speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Convention, 1858.
Semiosis 