"It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see."
"I have just been through the process of killing a cistudo for the sake of science; but I cannot excuse myself for this murder, and see that such actions are inconsistent with the poetic perception, however they may serve science, and will affect the quality of my observations. I pray that I may walk more innocently and serenely through nature. No reasoning whatever reconciles me to this act. It affects my day injuriously. I have lost some self-respect. I have a murderer's experience to a degree."
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Source: Henry David Thoreau (1999). “Material Faith: Thoreau on Science”, p.70, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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