Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.
Interpretation
Intelligence is often only utilized in the face of necessity for change when habits and instincts fail.
In this quote, H. G. Wells suggests that people typically rely on instinct and established habits until they encounter a situation that demands intellectual engagement. It implies that true intelligence is ignited by the need for change, highlighting the relationship between the necessity for adaptation and the application of thought and reason.
In practice
In a speech about climate change, you might use this quote to highlight the need for intelligence in tackling environmental issues.
He spares no resource in telling of his dead inventions... Bare verbs he rarely tolerates. He splits infinitives and fills them up with adverbial stuffing. He presses the passing colloquialism into his service. His vast paragraphis sweat and struggle; the
It [a new world order] needs only that the governments of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Russia should get together in order to set up an effective control of currency, credit, production, and distribution – that is to say, an effective ‘dictatorship of prosperity,’ for the whole world. The other sixty odd States would have to join in or accommodate themselves to the over-ruling decisions of these major Powers.
Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
But I was too restless to watch long; I'm too Occidental for a long vigil. I could work at a problem for years, but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours - that's another matter.
The greatest task of democracy, its ritual and feast - is choice.
I came out for exercise, gentle exercise, and to notice the scenery and to botanise. And no sooner do I get on that accursed machine than off I go hammer and tongs; I never look to right or left, never notice a flower, never see a view - get hot, juicy, red - like a grilled chop. Get me on that machine and I have to go. I go scorching along the road, and cursing aloud at myself for doing it.
The birth and death of leaves is part of that greater cycle that moves among the stars.
Nature is more like a seesaw than a crystal, a never-ending conga line of bold moves and corrections.
Some global hazards are insidious. They stem from pressure on energy supplies, food, water and other natural resources. And they will be aggravated as the population rises to a projected nine billion by mid-century, and by the effects of climate change. An 'ecological shock' could irreversibly degrade our environment.
The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of our planet.
And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October, when the trees are bare to the mild heavens, and the red leaves bestrew the road, and you can feel the breath of winter, morning and evening - no days so calm, so tenderly solemn, and with such a reverent meekness in the air.
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