Skip to content

Brevity Quote by John McPhee

“On the geological time scale, a human lifetime is reduced to a brevity that is too inhibiting to think about deep time. ... Geologists ... see the unbelievable swiftness with which one evolving species on the Earth has learned to reach into the dirt of some tropical island and fling 747s across…” quote by John McPhee
Download Open image
“On the geological time scale, a human lifetime is reduced to a brevity that is too inhibiting to think about deep time. ... Geologists ... see the unbelievable swiftness with which one evolving species on the Earth has learned to reach into the dirt of some tropical island and fling 747s across the sky ... Seeing a race unaware of its own instantaneousness in time, they can reel off all the species that have come and gone, with emphasis on those that have specialized themselves to death.”

John McPhee

3.2 out of 5 (8 ratings)

More by John McPhee

Explore all 57 John McPhee quotes

More Brevity quotes

Browse all 180 Brevity quotes