Night Magic Quotes

“On this imperiled planet, magic still exists, often in the places we least expect it.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“Every human who exhales has the potential to breathe fire. We are stardust, reshaped into creatures capable of burning whole planets.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“Destiny might be written in the stars, but it’s translated by geography.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“Fireflies can make light inside of their bodies—and we can make light outside of ours.
If other animals studies humans the way we study them, this would be our notable feature.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“Maybe we can revitalize massive darkness by fostering the conditions required to locate our own homeland’s minuscule wonders, wherever they might reside.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“Instead of using less energy after switching to LED lights, people have, the world over, started using even more energy for ever-brighter illumination, as if we’ve collectively decided that, since the light is energy-efficient, we might as well produce more of it.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“And, like many LED lights, it produced blue-rich white light. This type of light isn’t just the most damaging for astronomers’ sight; it’s one of the most biologically confusing for wildlife, since animals read blue light as a signal to enact daytime behaviors.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“But in the muck—with salamanders, fairies, and dragons—I am coming to understand, in a visceral way, that being grounded is not a punishment; it is a privilege. The dark recesses of this planet are not hell; they are home.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“We are still wrestling with the reality that justice doesn’t always prevail. We are reckoning with the fact that, even in the modern world, safety is often an illusion. But life on Earth is tenacious. And we are part of it, indivisibly.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“But in the muck—with salamanders, fairies, and dragons—I am coming to understand, in a visceral way, that being grounded is not a punishment; it is a privilege.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“We have the ability to see this tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum,” he says. “Because that’s all we can see, we tend to think that’s all there is. But there’s so much more.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“Light that we cannot see is emitted by everything that we can see. The good. The bad. The ugly. The things we consider inanimate. The things we think of as being dead. Energy is present even in the black space around stars, just as firefly larvae are present in my backyard, glowing brightly in the ground even during the coldest nights of winter. Even in what we call true darkness, the earthly places where our eyes find”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“It’s been linked to pro-depressive behaviors, and it activates the part of the brain associated with disappointment and dissatisfaction. Brains that process artificial light at night are known to have lower dopamine production the following morning. But, given our cultural associations, it’s difficult to align with the concept of light as a force with the power to make us sad. We almost always use darkness to symbolize depression and light to indicate happiness.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark

“It’s well documented that bacterium in soil can boost moods, maybe as effectively as antidepressant drugs. While light therapy plays a role in increasing serotonin and has long been used to combat seasonal affective disorder with morning exposure, researchers have started sounding warnings that being exposed to artificial light at night warrants more attention for its contribution to rising rates of mood disorders.”
― Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark