August 22, 2007 - 0 Comments

[on the pollination of figs, as discovered by the Department of Agriculture]

"There contributes to this miracle a little insect which gives up its life, a scientist who ferreted out this strange secret of nature, and a benevolent government that takes infinite pains to render service to its citizens to the end that they may live more happily and in the enjoyment of always more and more of the fruits of the earth."

-- William DuPuy, Our Insect Friends and Foes, 1925.

August 14, 2007 - 0 Comments

[on a Sir Mulberry Hawk's bad influences]

"Thus, cases of injustice, and oppression, and tyranny, and the most extravagant bigotry, are in constant occurrence among us every day. It is the custom to trumpet forth much wonder and astonishment at the chief actors therein setting at defiance so completely the opinion of the world; but there is no greater fallacy; it is precisely because they do consult the opinion of their own little worlds that such things take place at all, and strike the great world dumb with amazement."

- Dickens, Nickelby, 1838