““Plants,” said he, “show no sign of interesting themselves in human affairs. We shall never get a rose to understand that five times seven are thirty-five, and there is no use in talking to an oak about fluctuations in the price of stocks. Hence we say that the oak and the rose are unintelligent, and on finding that they do not understand our business conclude that they do not understand their own. But what can a creature who talks in this way know about intelligence? Which shows greater signs of intelligence? He, or the rose and oak?”

Source: Erewhon (1872), Ch. 27

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Samuel Butler232

novelist 1835–1902

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Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

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“Animals and plants cannot understand our business, so we have denied that they can understand their own.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Organic and Inorganic
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VI - Mind and Matter
Context: Animals and plants cannot understand our business, so we have denied that they can understand their own. What we call inorganic matter cannot understand the animals’ and plants’ business, we have therefore denied that it can understand anything whatever.

““Don’t talk to me like you understand my sins.”
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Alvin chuckled grimly. “Oh, that mouth you’ve got.”
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