“When you contemplate the universe, part of the universe becomes conscious of itself.”
Source: Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Think You Know (2010), p. 152
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1971Related quotes

As quoted in Introduction to Philosophy (1935) by George Thomas White Patrick and Frank Miller Chapman, p. 44
Variant translations:
I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence — as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.
Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavor to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.
1930s, Mein Weltbild (My World-view) (1931)
Source: The Esoteric Tradition (1935), Chapter 6
Max Velmans (2009) Understanding Consciousness, Edition 2. Routledge/Psychology Press, p. 298

Transhumanism (1957)
Context: As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future. This cosmic self-awareness is being realized in one tiny fragment of the universe — in a few of us human beings. Perhaps it has been realized elsewhere too, through the evolution of conscious living creatures on the planets of other stars. But on this our planet, it has never happened before.

“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.”
Wonders of the Universe - Messengers

Speech to University students (1959)

“If you forget yourself, you become the universe.”
As quoted in The Awakening Artist: Madness and Spiritual Awakening in Art by Patrick Howe

Source: The Other Side Of The Coin (2008), Chapter 3, One Versus Plurality, p. 89