...no matter how complex or affluent, human societies are nothing but subsystems of the biosphere, the Earth's thin veneer of life, which is ultimately run by bacteria, fungi and green plants.
Interpretation
Human societies are fundamentally part of the broader ecosystem and are influenced by its simplest forms of life.
This quote by Vaclav Smil emphasizes the interconnectedness of human societies with the biosphere, suggesting that no matter how advanced or complicated our social structures become, they ultimately derive their existence and sustenance from biological systems. It serves as a reminder of our reliance on the environment and the essential roles that microorganisms and plants play in maintaining life on Earth.
In practice
In a speech about sustainability, one might use this quote to highlight our dependence on the planet's resources.
I've read about 80 books a year for the past 50 years. I come from cultural breeding. I don't have a cellphone. When you spend all your time checking your cellphone messages, or updating your Facebook (of course I don't have a Facebook page) then you don't have any time for reading.
Most innovation is not done by research institutes and national laboratories. It comes from manufacturing - from companies that want to extend their product reach, improve their costs, increase their returns. What's very important is in-house research.
America tends to assume Silicon Valley-style innovators can drive quick and transformative changes, but even Silicon Valley's would-be masters of the universe have discovered that energy transitions are subject to time spans and technical constraints that defy their reach.
Everyone [in higher education] was what I call drillers of deeper wells. These academics sit at the bottom of a deep well and they look up and see a sliver of the sky. They know everything about that little sliver of sky and nothing else. I scan all my horizons.
Most scientific or engineering discoveries would never become successful products without contributions from other scientists or engineers. Every major invention is the child of far-flung parents who may never meet.
I'm old fashioned. I'm not one of these young guys who think they are so smart that they can prescribe what humanity ought to do. Humanity never learns any lessons. Prescriptions don't matter. We already know exactly what to do. We just don't do it.
Champagne had the taste of an apple peeled with a steel knife.
Karate is like boiling water: without heat, it returns to it's tepid state
When tradition is thought to state the way things really are, it becomes the director and judge of our lives; we are, in effect, imprisoned by it. On the other hand, tradition can be understood as a pointer to that which is beyond tradition: the sacred. Then it functions not as a prison but as a lens.
I've discovered I've got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.
The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit.
The Creator, in taking infinite pains to shroud with mystery His presence in every atom of creation, could have had but one motive - a sensitive desire that men seek Him only through free will.
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