“Do you believe that a dead woman can conceive from a live man and bring forth a live child? Do you believe it, any of you mothers? Do you believe it, any of you fathers? No, you know better. Well, if a woman will not produce when she is dead, then the earth cannot produce living things if it was dead. Does the earth conceive? It does, and it brings forth. If it did not, why do you go and put your wheat into the ground? Does it not conceive it? But it does not conceive except you put it there. It conceives and brings forth, and you and I live, both for food and for clothing, silks and satins. What! satin grow? Yes. What produces it? The silkworm produces it. Does the silkworm produce except it conceives? No, it eats of the mulberry tree. Where does the mulberry tree come from? It comes from the earth. Where did the earth come from? From its parent earths. Well, some of you may call that foolish philosophy. But if it is, I will throw out foolish things, that you may gather up wise things. The earth is alive. If it was not, it could not produce: If you find a piece of earth that is dead, you cannot produce anything from it, except you resurrect it and restore it to life.”

Act I, scene II. — (Polinico).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 241.
La Calandria (c. 1507)

1860s, Should the Negro Enlist in the Union Army? (1863)

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

My Reviewers Reviewed (lecture from June 27, 1877, San Francisco, CA)

Source: Singer from the Sea (1999), Chapter 24, “People from the Sea” (p. 382)

Aviendha to Matrim Cauthon
(15 October 1994)

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Source: The Sinner