How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[Paul] recalled another thing the [Reverend Mother] had said about a world being the sum of many things—the people, the dirt, the growing things, the moons, the tides, the suns—the unknown sum called nature, a vague summation without any sense of the now. (4.72)
An environment may not have any sense of the now, but we use many aspects of nature to create our own sense of time. It's just one of many human institutions we create from our environment—more to come as we explore the other themes.
Quote #2
"Those are date palms," [Yueh] said. "One date palm requires forty liters of water a day. A man requires but eight liters. A palm, then, equals five men. There are twenty palms out there—one hundred men." (8.24)
Wow, that's pretty dark, but it raises a good point. The competition for resources between organisms is super important to consider when studying ecology. Bet you never thought of yourself as competing with trees, huh?