Fixed Action Patterns

Famous quotes containing the words fixed, action and/or patterns:

    Genius detects through the fly, through the caterpillar, through the grub, through the egg, the constant individual; through countless individuals the fixed species; through many species the genus; through all genera the steadfast type; through all the kingdoms of organized life the eternal unity. Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    A servant with this clause
    Makes drudgery divine:
    Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws
    Makes that and th’ action fine.
    George Herbert (1593–1633)

    I’ve begun to appreciate the generational patterns that ripple out from our lives like stones dropped in water, pulsing outward even after we are gone. Although we have but one childhood, we relive it first through our children’s and then our grandchildren’s eyes.
    Anne Cassidy (20th century)