No leaf ever wholly equals another, and the concept “leaf” is formed through an arbitrary abstraction from these individual differences, through forgetting the distinctions; and now it gives rise to the idea that in nature there might be something besides the leaves which would be “leaf”—some kind of original form after which all leaves have been woven, marked, copied, colored, curled, and painted, but by unskilled hands, so that no copy turned out to be a correct, reliable, and faithful image of the original form.
“On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense” by Friedrich Nietzsche (1873)
We’ll be enjoying sand grains, rocks and waves on the Maine cost today, and I can never enjoy the vast array of particulars without thinking of Nietzsche’s passion for them.
Copious Flowers 