"You transformed the force and urgency / of your tears into your mature gaze and were just on the point of turning all your / body's juices into a powerful existence, / which would rise and circle, trustingly, in equilibrium. / Then chance, your last encounter with chance, / tore you back from your furthest progress, / back into a world where juices have their will. / Not all at once; tore just a shred at first, / but when, around this shred, day by day, / reality swelled, became heavy, [...]." —Thank you, Rainer Maria Rilke (and translators Galway Kinnell and Hannah Liebmann), for "Requiem for a Friend," in The Essential Rilke, 1999, pp.49-51. 

"The trunk and branches support the weight of the tree and are the main elements in building a [...] shape in the plant.  The skin protects the interior part of the plant; the vessels provide channels for the passage of nutrition to the leaves and branches.  These vessels are the means by which water and nutrition absorbed by roots are passed to the leaves." —Thank you, Amy Liang, for The Living Art of Bonsai, 2005, p.171. 

"Sound bounces back not only off solid obstacles but also off clouds.  Even absolutely transparent air is able to reflect sound waves in certain circumstances, when for some reason it differs in sound-carrying capacity from the rest of the air mass.  [...]  The famous British physicist gave the name of acoustic clouds to those areas of transparent air which reflected sound, thus producing an 'aerial echo'.  This is what he has to say about it:  'Acoustic clouds, in fact, are incessantly floating or flying through the air.  They have nothing whatever to do with ordinary clouds, fogs or haze.  The most transparent atmosphere may be filled with them; converting days of extraordinary optical transparency into days of equally extraordinary acoustic opacity...  The existence of these aerial echoes has been proved both by observation and experiment.  They may arise either from air currents differently heated, or from air currents differently saturated with vapour.'" —Thank you, Yakov Perelman, for Physics for Entertainment, Book Two, 2008, pp.312-312. 

"Giraffe characteristics:  Very tall with long neck (elongated neck vertebrae) and long limbs.  Bony prominences of neck vertebrae can be seen on the surface [...].  Back line slopes downward toward rear.  usually three, permanent, bony 'horns' in both male and female, covered with skin and fur.  Two located on either side of rear of skull (may be topped with hairy tufts); third horn (sometimes only a knob) wider, stubbier, and of variable size, located on midline in front of the other horns, is more developed in the male.  Long, mobile, prehensile lips; long tongue.  Nostrils closable.  Large eyes with long lashes.  No front teeth in upper jaw.  Two digits with hoofs per limb.  Walks on toes.   Long tail with long hair from tip.  Upright mane on midline of neck.” —Thank you, Eliot Goldfinger, for Animal Anatomy for Artists, 2004, p.164. 

"I use the term ['invisible masterpiece'] as a metaphor for the idea of a work that comprises art in the absolute - a state beyond the reach of every tangible art-work.  ['Invisible masterpiece'], therefore, does not refer to any specific work, but only to an unattainable ideal, a work in which a dream of art (or art as a dream) is incorporated.” —Thank you, Hans Belting, for The Invisible Masterpiece, 2001, p.11.  Thank you, Chris & Anna Celenza, for access to the library from which this book was borrowed.

"A range of theoretical developments has gradually qualified the interpretation of 'universe.'  [...]  Sometimes it's applied to separate realms, ones that are partly or fully, temporarily or permanently, inaccessible to us; in this sense, the word relegates our universe to membership in a large, perhaps infinitely large, collection.” —Thank you, Brian Greene, for The Hidden Reality:  Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos, 2011, pp.12-13.

"I am in love with what we are / Not what we should be / And I am, I am starstruck / With every part of this whole story / So if it's just tonight / The animal inside, let it live then die / Like it's the end of time / Like everything inside / Let it live then die [...]”—Thank you, K. Sebert, Gottwald, Greg Kurstin, Pebe Sebert for the opening lyrics of the song, "Animal (Switch remix)," on Ke$ha's album, "I Am the Dance Commander + I Command You to Dance: The Remix Album," 2011.  Thank you, Ke$ha, for recording these lyrics.

"First of all Chaos came into being.  Next came / broad-breasted Gaia (Earth), the secure dwelling place forever of all / the immortals [...] / [...] From Chaos there came into being Erebos (Darkness) and black night / [...] Gaia first brought forth starry Ouranos (Sky)/ [...] in order to be a secure dwelling place forever for the blessed gods.”—Thank you, Hesiod ("late eighth to early seventh century BCE", in Richard D. McKirahan, Jr's, Philosophy Before Socrates, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1994, p.9.  Thank you, Chris & Anna Celenza for access to the library from which this book was borrowed.

"Plants have developed a wide spectrum of techniques in order to ensure that their flowers are pollinated.  The various devices involve timing and position of flower opening, flower shape, and color.  These features are collectively known as flowering strategies.”—Thank you, Michael Emsley, for Human Rain Forests and Cloud Forests, Harry N. Abrams, 1979, p.152