Quotes About Adaptation

Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labor, exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television.

The Relativity theory, the copernican upheaval, or any great scientific convulsion, leaves a new landscape. There is a period of stunned dreariness; then people begin, antlike, the building of a new human world. They soon forget the last disturbance. But from these shocks they derive a slightly augmented vocabulary, a new blind spot in their vision, a few new blepharospasms or tics, and perhaps a revised method of computing time.

I came to water late. I learned to swim at the age of 20.

This is why human relationships usually take me beyond my limits. They wear me out. They scatter my thoughts. They make me worry about what I have just said and what they have just said, and how or if that all fits together, and what they will say next and what I will say then, and do I owe them something or is it their turn to owe me, and why do the rules change depending

Perhaps nothing was ever "meant to be." There was just life, and right now, and doing your best. Being a bit "bendy.

It had never crossed her mind that sending your child to school would be like going back to school yourself.

Once you've hit a ball there's no point watching to see where it's going. You can't change its flight path now. You have to think about your next move. Not what you should have done. What you do now.

Relationships don't stay the same. There isn't time.

You get what you get and you don't get upset!" screamed Fred.

But Grace quite likes the fact that you can think something is one way all your life, and it turns out you're wrong, it can be something else entirely. It makes her feel free. Nothing is rigid. Things change. You can change your mind. You can change your thinking.

But things change. People change. It just happens. It's just life. The fact that you're getting a divorce doesn't change the fact that you had all those wonderful times. And I swear

Accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance.

It was extraordinary the way her body knew how to do things—the mobile phone, the makeup, the lock—without her mind remembering her ever having done them before.

She was getting far too used to having someone cook and clean for her. This was what it must be like to be a celebrity. No wonder they were so charismatic and cheerful on talk shows. Joy could feel herself becoming more charismatic and cheerful by the day.

So that's how she lived with it. She did it the way so many people lived with their regrets and mistakes. They simply rewrote their stories. Her mother had re-created herself as a devoted mother: as if ballet had been her daughter's favorite extracurricular activity, not her own obsession.

Move on. Once you've hit a ball there's no point watching to see where it's going. You can't change its flight path now. You have to think about your next move. Not what you should have done. What you do now.

I took so long coming to the door. I had no idea crutches were so damned tricky. I imagined myself swinging jauntily along, but they dig into your armpits like I don't know what.

She might have lost a husband, but she'd got herself a wife. An efficient, energetic young wife. What a bargain. What an upgrade.

I think we should let them out,' said Yao. 'They were meant to be out by now.' 'We have to be ready to adapt,' said Masha. 'I told you both that at the beginning. For dramatic results, you need dramatic action. I know this is uncomfortable for them, but that's the only way people change. They have water. They have shelter. We are taking them out of their comfort zone, that's all. That's when growth occurs.

Motherhood and marriage had made her a soft, spongy version of the girl she used to be.

She'd been gone for nearly a year and her hair was longer and she was wearing an entire outfit Gemma had never seen before. Even her shoes were different.

Funny how words disappeared, became quaint and ridiculous, like fashions and opinions you once held dear.

Grace quite likes the fact that you can think something is one way all your life, and it turns out you're wrong, it can be something else entirely. It makes her feel free. Nothing is rigid. Things change. You can change your mind. You can change your thinking. Grace

How was she going to cope for ten days without instant answers to idle questions?