Carolina QuotesThe universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, not primarily of objects to be used. As a subject, each component of the universe is capable of having rights.
Thomas Berry Carolinian
Source
Appendix 2, p. 149
- work
- Evening Thoughts
- locator
- p. 149
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“The universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, no…” Thomas Berry. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-1A706141DD. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/1a706141dd
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Even with all our technological accomplishments and urban sophistication, we consider ourselves blessed, healed in some manner, forgiven, and for a moment transported into some other world, when we catch a passing glimpse of an animal in the wild: a deer in some woodland, a fox crossing a field, a butterfly in its dancing flight southward to its wintering region, a hawk soaring in the distant sky, a hummingbird come into our garden, fireflies signaling to each other in the evening. So we might describe the thousandfold moments when we experience our meetings with the animals in their unrestrained and undomesticated status. Such incidents as these remind us that the universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, not of objects to be exploited.