Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quote

Natural system — a contradiction in terms. Nature has no system; she has, she is life and its progress from an unknown center toward an unknowable goal. Scientific research is therefore endless, whether one proceed analytically into minutiae or follow the trail as a whole, in all its breadth and height.


Goethe's Botanical Writings, Problems (p. 116), University of Hawaii Press. 1952


Natural system — a contradiction in terms. Nature has no system; she has, she is life and its progress from an unknown center toward an unknowable...

Natural system — a contradiction in terms. Nature has no system; she has, she is life and its progress from an unknown center toward an unknowable...

Natural system — a contradiction in terms. Nature has no system; she has, she is life and its progress from an unknown center toward an unknowable...

Natural system — a contradiction in terms. Nature has no system; she has, she is life and its progress from an unknown center toward an unknowable...