Wallace Quotes

“MirkerLurker: I thought the characters were the reason anyone read Monstrous Sea.

rainmaker: You mean like, shipping?

MirkerLurker: No, not shipping - shipping's great, and I do it all the time, but I mean... the characters themselves. The struggles they have to go through, and when you really love them, how much they affect you. When the characters are good, they make you care about everything else. That's why I draw them. It probably sounds dumb, but they're like real people to me. And this will probably sound worse, but sometimes I like them better than real people. I can empathize with characters. Real people are harder.”
― Francesca Zappia, Eliza and Her Monsters

“A nurse’s aid threw the contents of a patient’s water glass out a window, the mass of water hitting the ground dislodging a pebble which rolled across the angled pavement and fell with a click on a stone culvert in the ditch below, startling a squirrel having at some sort of nut right there on the concrete pipe, causing the squirrel to run up the nearest tree, in doing which it disturbed a slender brittle branch and surprised a few nervous morning birds, of of which, preparatory to flight released a black-and-white glob of droppings, which glob fell neatly on the windshield of the tiny car of one Lenore Beadsman, just as she pulled into a parking space. Lenore got out of the car while birds flew away, making sounds.”
― David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System

“This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.

{The phrase 'survival of the fittest' was not originated by Charles Darwin, though he discussed Spencer's 'excellent expression' in a letter to Alfred Russel Wallace (Jul 1866).}”
― Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology, Vol 1

“I fully agree with all that you say on the advantages of H. Spencer's excellent expression of 'the survival of the fittest.' This, however, had not occurred to me till reading your letter. It is, however, a great objection to this term that it cannot be used as a substantive governing a verb; and that this is a real objection I infer from H. Spencer continually using the words, natural selection.

(Letter to A. R. Wallace July 1866)”
― Charles Darwin

“rainmaker: Weird, I didn’t know you had such a thing for timid guys.

MirkerLurker: Really does it for me when a guy is paralyzed with fear on a regular basis
.
rainmaker: Aw. Sad.

MirkerLurker: What’s sad?

rainmaker: That it would never work between us. I’m too courageous.”
― Francesca Zappia, Eliza and Her Monsters

“The publication of the Darwin and Wallace papers in 1858, and still more that of the 'Origin' in 1859, had the effect upon them of the flash of light, which to a man who has lost himself in a dark night, suddenly reveals a road which, whether it takes him straight home or not, certainly goes his way. That which we were looking for, and could not find, was a hypothesis respecting the origin of known organic forms, which assumed the operation of no causes but such as could be proved to be actually at work. We wanted, not to pin our faith to that or any other speculation, but to get hold of clear and definite conceptions which could be brought face to face with facts and have their validity tested. The 'Origin' provided us with the working hypothesis we sought.”
― Thomas Henry Huxley, On the Reception of the 'Origin of Species'

“Much of the geographical work of the past hundred years... has either explicitly or implicitly taken its inspiration from biology, and in particular Darwin. Many of the original Darwinians, such as Hooker, Wallace, Huxley, Bates, and Darwin himself, were actively concerned with geographical exploration, and it was largely facts of geographical distribution in a spatial setting which provided Darwin with the germ of his theory.”
― David R. Stoddart

“Before they even reached the front door, it opened and a small, silver-gray terrier came bounding out. He stopped a few yards away from Merritt and growled.
"Hello, Wallace," she said with a faint smile, and stood still as he came to her. The terrier circled around her, sniffing at her skirts. In a moment he gazed up at her with bright eyes and a wagging tail, and let her pet him. "What a handsome boy you are," she exclaimed, smoothing his fur.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Disguise

“She watched with amusement as Wallace paced restlessly around the overloaded settee, obviously trying to calculate how he too could sit there.
"Wallace," Keir said dryly, "I dinna know where you think you'll find a blessed inch of empty space."
The terrier persisted, however, hopping up near their feet and painstakingly crawling over their bodies.
"Wallace will come to London with us, of course," Merritt said, reaching out swiftly to steady the dog as he wobbled.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Disguise

“En la ficción el amor te inspira a volverte seguro y poderoso. Pero en la vida real, el amor es la perfecta excusa para el egoísmo. Puedes mentir, engañar y hacer mucho daño. Todo es correcto porque fue el amor.”
― Michael Rinaldi

“The soul, o ganders, flies beyond the parks
And far beyond the discords of the wind.

A bronze rain from the sun descending marks
The death of summer, which that time endures”
― Wallace Stevens

“Staring down at the terrier, Keir asked softly, "What do you think, Wallace? She's one to be keepit, aye?"
The long, silky tail fanned vigorously from side to side.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Disguise

“i indulge in many drugs,
seeking that high—
but the feed is the ultimate sky.
nothing beats the rush of dopamine,
mindlessly scrolling through the screen.”
― Revati, the void and the feed