Nature is sanative, refining, elevating. How cunningly she hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses, and violets, and morning dew! Every inch of the mountains is scarred by unimaginable convulsions, yet the new day is purple with the bloom of youth and love. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Progress of Culture”

Nature is not benevolent: with ruthless indifference she makes all things serve their purposes… – Laozi, as quoted in The Wisdom of the East: The Sayings of Lao Tzŭ, transla

Custom is second nature. – Augustine of Hippo