Quotes about burrow

A collection of quotes on the topic of burrow, life, likeness, use.

Quotes about burrow

Emil M. Cioran photo

“If you don't want to explode with rage, leave your memory alone, abstain from burrowing there.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

Isabel Allende photo
Will Self photo
Rick Riordan photo
Erica Jong photo
Jane Hamilton photo
Nick Hornby photo
Charles Darwin photo

“When the pots containing two worms which had remained quite indifferent to the sound of the piano, were placed on this instrument, and the note C in the bass clef was struck, both instantly retreated into their burrows.”

Source: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 28. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=43&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

Ben Croshaw photo
Leo Tolstoy photo
Charles Darwin photo

“In this case, therefore, the worms judged with a considerable degree of correctness how best to draw the withered leaves of this foreign plant into their burrows; notwithstanding that they had to depart from their usual habit of avoiding the foot-stalk.”

Source: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 2: Habits of Worms, p. 70. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=85&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

Brian W. Aldiss photo
Charles Darwin photo

“Worms seize leaves and other objects, not only to serve as food, but for plugging up the mouths of their burrows; and this is one of their strongest instincts.”

Source: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 2: Habits of Worms, p. 58. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=73&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

Peter Kropotkin photo

“Before you can escape from your burrow you must know you are trapped. Then there's a chance.”

Barry Long (1926–2003) Australian spiritual teacher and writer

Knowing Yourself: The True in the False (1996)

Gerald Durrell photo
Charles Darwin photo

“When a worm is suddenly illuminated and dashes like a rabbit into its burrow—to use the expression employed by a friend—we are at first led to look at the action as a reflex one.”

Source: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 23. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=38&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

Colin Wilson photo
Charles Darwin photo

“As it is certain that worms swallow many little stones, independently of those swallowed while excavating their burrows, it is probable that they serve, like mill-stones, to triturate their food.”

Source: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 18. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=33&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image

Susan Faludi photo
Colin Wilson photo

“Now he saw the problem with great clarity. If he lived here, life would be pleasant and safe. But it would also be predictable. A child could be born here, grow up here, die here, without ever experiencing the excitement of discovery. Why did Dona question him endlessly about his life in the burrow and his journey to the country of the ants? Because for her, it represented a world that was dangerous and full of fascinating possibilities. For the children of this underground city, life was a matter of repetition, of habit.”

Colin Wilson (1931–2013) author

And this, he suddenly realized, was the heart of the problem. Habit. Habit was a stifling, warm blanket that threatened you with suffocation and lulled the mind into a state of perpetual nagging dissatisfaction. Habit meant the inability to escape from yourself, to change and develop . . .

pp. 132-133
Spider World: The Desert (1987)

Alexis Karpouzos photo