It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.
I wanted to know the name of every stone and flower and insect and bird and beast. I wanted to know where it got its color, where it got its life - but there was no one to tell me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a deep curiosity and desire to understand the natural world and its various elements.
George Washington Carver's quote reflects a profound yearning for knowledge about the natural world, encapsulating a sense of wonder and an appreciation for the intricacies of life. Carver's quest to know the names and origins of every stone, flower, insect, bird, and beast symbolizes a broader human desire to connect with nature and understand the beauty and complexity of our environment. However, the realization that there was 'no one to tell me' hints at the solitude that can accompany such a pursuit of knowledge, suggesting that the journey of discovery is often personal and self-directed.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
A teacher might use this quote to inspire students to explore nature during a biology lesson.
More from George Washington Carver
All quotes →We have become 99 percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and within our income, laying a little by systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is due to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts.
I would never allow anyone to give me money, no difference how badly I needed it. I wanted literally to earn my living.
Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.
God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.
Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.
Similar quotes
[About reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, age 14, in the back seat of his parents' sedan. I almost threw up. I got physically ill when I learned that ospreys and peregrine falcons weren't raising chicks because of what people were spraying on bugs at their farms and lawns. This was the first time I learned that humans could impact the environment with chemicals. [That a corporation would create a product that didn't operate as advertised] was shocking in a way we weren't inured to.
Mineral cactai, quicksilver lizards in the adobe walls, the bird that punctures space, thirst, tedium, clouds of dust, impalpable epiphanies of wind. The pines taught me to talk to myself. In that garden I learnedto send myself off. Later there were no gardens.
One goes to Nature only for hints and half-truths. Her facts are crude until you have absorbed them or translated them ... It is not so much what we see as what the thing seen suggests.
If you know wilderness in the way that you know love, you would be unwilling to let it go.... This is the story of our past and it will be the story of our future.
Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.
Is there a more mysterious idea than to imagine how nature is reflected in the eyes of animals?