David Attenborough TV - Edward Said - Samuel Johnson - Proverb - Aphra Behn - William Cowper - John Dryden - Thomas Hardy -
Variation is the raw material of evolution. David Attenborough, Life on Earth IV: The Swarming Hordes, BBC 1979
Mammals: but how have they become so varied? David Attenborough, Life on Earth X: Theme and Variations
I was saying really that there is no such thing as the Orient – the Orient is much more complicated, much more varied, much more heterogeneous, and above all much more detailed than any of these grand generalisations. Edward Said, interview BBC
The great source of pleasure is variety. Uniformity must tire at last, though it be uniformity of excellence. We love to expect; and, when expectation is disappointed or gratified we want to be again expecting. Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets
Variety is the spice of life. Late 18th century proverb
Variety is the soul of pleasure. Aphra Behn, The Rover pt.2, 1681
Variety’s the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour. William Cowper, The Task
A man so various that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind’s epitome.
Still in opinions, always in the wrong;
Was everything by starts, and nothing long.
But, in the course of one revolving moon:
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman and buffoon. John Dryden 1631-1700, Absalom and Achitophel
He had been disintegrated into a number of varied fellow-creatures – beings of many minds, being infinite in difference; some happy, many serene, a few depressed, one here and there bright even to genius, some stupid, others wanton, others austere: some mutely Miltonic, some potentially Cromwellian. Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles