The characteristic of life does not lie in a distinctiveness of single life processes. [Lebensvorgänge], but rather in a certain order among all the processes.

L. von Bertalanffy (1934). "Wandlungen des biologischen Denkens", Neue Jahrbücher für Wissenschaft und Jugendbildung, 10:339-366; as cited in Manfred Drack (2008). "Ludwig von Bertalanffy's Early System Approach"