Diane Ackerman

For if I do something, I never do it thoughtlessly.

— Diane Ackerman

Variety is the pledge that matter makes to living things.

— Diane Ackerman

Like love, travel makes you innocent again.

— Diane Ackerman

Our skin is what stands between us and the world.

— Diane Ackerman

Human beings are sloshing sacks of chemicals on the move.

— Diane Ackerman

Humans are the most successful invasives of all time.

— Diane Ackerman

A kiss is like singing into someone's mouth.

— Diane Ackerman

“Every moment is great, we were taught, every moment s unique.”

— Diane Ackerman

Love is the best school, but the tuition is high and the homework can be painful.

— Diane Ackerman

American writer 1803-1882 Play is our brain's favorite way of learning.

— Diane Ackerman

“Only by fumbling with countless bits of knowledge, and then ignoring most of it, does a creative mind craft something original.”

— Diane Ackerman

A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically.

— Diane Ackerman

We humans are obsessed with lights...Perhaps it is our way of hurling the constellations back at the sky.

— Diane Ackerman

And yet, words are the passkeys to our souls. Without them, we can't really share the enormity of our lives.

— Diane Ackerman

Couples are jigsaw puzzles that hang together by touching in just enough points.

— Diane Ackerman

What an odd, ruminating, noisy, self-interrupting conversation we conduct with ourselves from birth to death.

— Diane Ackerman

What would dawn have been like, had you awakened? It would have sung through your bones. All I can do this morning…

— Diane Ackerman

We ogle plants and animals up close on television, the Internet and in the movies. We may not worship the animals we…

— Diane Ackerman

“husk or shell that has grown up around a spark of holiness, masking its light" (203): Michael Wex, Born to Kvetch: Yiddish…

— Diane Ackerman

“A good strategy should dictate the right actions. Any action mustn't be impulsive, but analyzed along with all its possible outcomes. A…

— Diane Ackerman

Words are such small things, like confetti in the brain, and yet they are color and clarify everything, they can stain the…

— Diane Ackerman

Smell brings to mind... a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells…

— Diane Ackerman

Brain scans show synchrony between the brains of mother and child; but what they can't show is the internal bond that belongs…

— Diane Ackerman

We live on the leash of our senses. There is no way in which to understand the world without first detecting it…

— Diane Ackerman

“I'd suffered many losses in recent years after my father mother uncle aunt and cousin had all passed away. In her final…

— Diane Ackerman

For better or worse, zoos are how most people come to know big or exotic animals. Few will ever see wild penguins…

— Diane Ackerman

“I will not dishonor my soul with hatred, but offer myself humbly as a guardian of nature, as a healer of misery,…

— Diane Ackerman

“A perfect balance is possible to imagine, but impossible to reach, so one is always trembling along an arc from too excited…

— Diane Ackerman

“Rescuers tended to be decisive, fast-thinking, risk-taking, independent, adventurous, openhearted, rebellious, and unusually flexible—able to switch plans, abandon habits, or change ingrained…

— Diane Ackerman

“The etymology of the Hebrew word for prophet, navi, combines three processes: navach (to cry out), nava (to gush or flow), and…

— Diane Ackerman

I'm an Earth ecstatic, and my creed is simple: All life is sacred, life loves life, and we are capable of improving…

— Diane Ackerman

Flying has changed how we imagine our planet, which we have seen whole from space, so that even the farthest nations are…

— Diane Ackerman

“Metaphor isn't just decorative language. If it were, it wouldn't scare us so much. . . . Colorful language threatens some people,…

— Diane Ackerman

“The Poles claim Korczak as a martyr, and the Israelis revere him as one of the Thirty-Six Just Men, whose pure souls…

— Diane Ackerman

“I may enter a zone of transcendence, in which I marvel at all the accidents of fate, since the beginning of life…

— Diane Ackerman

“Love is the great intangible. In our nightmares, we can create beasts out of pure emotion. Hate stalks the streets with dripping…

— Diane Ackerman

“Play is our brain's favorite way of learning”

— Diane Ackerman

“Each photograph is a magic lamp rubbed by the mind.”

— Diane Ackerman

Culture is what people invent when they have lost nature.

— Diane Ackerman

We are defined by how we place our attention.

— Diane Ackerman