# Quote — Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses

> Most of all, the twentieth century will be remembered as the time when we first began to understand what our address was. The “big, beautiful, blue, wet ball” of recent years is one way to say it. But a more profound way will speak of the orders of magnitude of that bigness, the shades of that blueness, the arbitrary delicacy of beauty itself, the ways in which water has made life possible, and the fragile euphoria of the complex ecosystem that is Earth, an Earth on which, from space, there are no visible fences, or military zones, or national borders.

- Author: [Diane Ackerman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman.md)
- Book: [A Natural History of the Senses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman/a-natural-history-of-the-senses.md)
- Page: 285
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Diane_Ackerman#A_Natural_History_of_the_Senses_(1990)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman/a-natural-history-of-the-senses/most-of-all

## More from this book

> Not everything we feel is felt powerfully enough to send a message to the brain; the rest of the sensations just wash over us, telling us nothing. Much is lost in translation, or is censored, and in any case our nerves don’t all fire at once. Some of them remain silent while others respond. This makes our version of the world somewhat simplistic, given how complex the world is. The body’s quest isn’t for truth, it’s for survival.

p. 304 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman/a-natural-history-of-the-senses/not-everything-we-feel.md)

> So much of our life passes in a comfortable blur. Living on the senses requires an easily triggered sense of marvel, a little extra energy, and most people are lazy about life. Life is something that happens to them while they wait for death.

p. 305 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman/a-natural-history-of-the-senses/so-much-of-our.md)

> It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.

p. 309 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman/a-natural-history-of-the-senses/it-began-in-mystery.md)