“Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant;
the only harmless great thing.”
As quoted in "Epiphanies in Sepia and Umber" by Matthew Gurewitsch, in The Wall Street Journal, (15 March 2005)
Context: In the next 25 years, the human race will have to decide whether or not to preserve the bestiary of Nature’s living masterpieces. Ashes and Snow is not meant to tell people to do some things and not to do other things. It’s meant to inspire. I hope it’s not a requiem.
“Don't bow down to critics who have not themselves written great masterpieces.”
Source: City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology
“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature. ”
“Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.”
John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby "An Essay on Poetry", line 2; cited from The Poetical Works of the Most Noble John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (Edinburg [sic]: Apollo Press, 1780) p. 281.
Misattributed in Temple Bar (February 1863) p. 377, and by Giga Quotes http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/george_villiers_a001.htm.
Misattributed
“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.”
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Friendship
“Make every day your masterpiece.”
Interview on Charlie Rose https://archive.org/details/WHUT_20100614_130000_Charlie_Rose (2000)
Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
Preface to the Revised Edition (October, 1906)
The Evolution of Modern Capitalism: A Study of Machine Production (1906)
