Misquote note: A few sources have paraphrased the cited quote by changing the word “it” to“life” at the beginning of the Ackerman’s original sentence:

Original text: “It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.”

Misquote/paraphrase: “Life began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.”

Extended excerpt [Non-fiction; final lines of book postscript.]:

“The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day. Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and unyielding, and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and detours, life will seem to have none of its magnificent geography, only a length. It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.” (p. 309)

Source: Library – A Natural History of the Senses (1990|1995 Vintage Books ed.), International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 9780679735663

Extended excerpt [Introduction to non-fiction text]:

“When I set a glass prism on a windowsill and allow the sun to flood through it, a spectrum of colors dances on the floor. What we call “white” is a rainbow of colored rays packed into a small space. The prism sets them free. Love is the white light of emotion. It includes many feelings which, out of laziness or confusion, we crowd into one simple word.” (p. xvi)

Source: Library – A Natural History of Love (1994) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-679-76183-7

Extended excerpt [Essay]:

“People often ask me where they might go to find adventure. Adventure is not something you must travel to find, I tell them, it’s something you take with you. The astonishing can turn up in the leaf clutter, or even a neighborhood restaurant, in a dingy tank, on the lips of lobsters.”

Source link: “World Within Worlds” (17 December 1995) The New York Times; ‘TimesMachine’ archive [subscription service]: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/17/opinion/worlds-within-worlds.html

Misquote Note: Ackerman’s quote has been frequently paraphrased by online and print sources:

Original line: “Play is an activity enjoyed for its own sake. It is our brain’s favorite way of learning and maneuvering.”

Misquote/Paraphrase: “Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.”

Extended excerpt [Non-fiction]:

“Play is an activity enjoyed for its own sake. It is our brain’s favorite way of learning and maneuvering. Because we think of play as the opposite of seriousness, we don’t notice that it governs most of society – political games, in-law games, money games, love games, advertising games, to list only a few spheres where gamesmanship is rampant.” (p. 11)

Source: Deep Play (1999) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-679-77135-2

Extended excerpt [Essay]:

“A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically. It knows about spunk, zealousness, obstinacy, and deliverance. It accretes life, which is why different people can read different things in the same poem. It freezes life, too, yanks a bit out of life’s turbulent stream, and holds it up squirming for view, framed by the white margins of the page. Poetry is an act of distillation. It takes contingency samples, is selective. It telescopes time. It focuses what most often floods past us in a polite blur.” (p. 205)

Source: Library – The Writer on Her Work (1991) W.W. Norton & Co., International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-393-30867-7

Re-quote note: A number of sources have paraphrased Ackerman’s quote by changing the first words from “[R]evolutions don’t require a majority…” to “It does not require a majority…”

Original: “Early on, he realized that revolutions don’t require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brushfires in people’s minds.”

Misquote/paraphrase: “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”

Misattribution note: Ackerman’s 1987 description of Samuel Adams has also been misconstrued by a number of sources and attributed to Samuel Adams himself. The quote (or a similar version) does not appear in Adams’ work.

For additional background and research on the Ackerman misattribution, please see an earlier post by etymologist Barry Popik: https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/it_does_not_require_a_majority_to_prevail_but_rather_an_irate_tireless_mino

Extended excerpt: [On revolutionary-era politician Samuel Adams]:

“Adams didn’t invent the phrase “rabble-rousing,” but he raised the act to an art form. Early on, he realized that revolutions don’t require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brushfires in people’s minds. Dogged, subtle, eloquent and cunning, he was obsessed with a vision of the ideal state he wanted America to become. Fueled by the tonic of his self-righteousness, he published a blizzard of circulars, newspaper articles and letters that bristled with restrained indignation. The letters were signed with pseudonyms, so that it would appear that many vocal zealots were enraged, but his one-man propaganda factory wrote them all. It was his form of pyromania, and it worked.” (p. 22)

Source link [Featured source]: “The Man Who Made a Revolution” (6 September 1987) Parade Magazine, in The Kokomo Tribune; online via Newspapers.com [subscription service]: https://www.newspapers.com/image/2666174

Source link [Additional misattribution research – Barry Popik]: “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority” (2 December 2009) The Big Apple: https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/it_does_not_require_a_majority_to_prevail_but_rather_an_irate_tireless_mino

Extended excerpt [Non-fiction]:

“Inhaling and exhaling, we smell odors. Smells coat us, swirl around us, enter our bodies, emanate from us. We live in a constant wash of them. Still, when we try to describe a smell, words fail us like the fabrications they are. Words are small shapes in the gorgeous chaos of the world.” (p. 7)

Source: Library – A Natural History of the Senses (1990|1995 Vintage Books ed.), International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 9780679735663

Extended excerpt [Non-fiction]:

“The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day. Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and unyielding, and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and detours, life will seem to have none of its magnificent geography, only a length. It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.”

Source: Library – A Natural History of the Senses (1990|1995 Vintage Books ed.), International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 9780679735663

Extended excerpt [Introduction to non-fiction text]:

“The senses don’t just make sense of life in bold or subtle acts of clarity, they tear reality apart into vibrant morsels and reassemble them into a meaningful pattern. They take contingency samples. They allow an instance to stand for a mob. They negotiate and settle for a reasonable version and make small, delicate transactions.” (p. xvii)

Source: Library – A Natural History of Love (1994) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-679-76183-7

Extended excerpt [Introduction to non-fiction text]:

“It is both our panic and our privilege to be mortal and sense-full. We live on the leash of our senses. Although they enlarge us, they also limit and restrain us, but how beautifully. Love is a beautiful bondage, too.” (p. xviii)

Source: Library – A Natural History of the Senses (1990|1995 Vintage Books ed.), International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 9780679735663

Extended excerpt [Non-fiction]:

“The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day. Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and unyielding, and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and detours, life will seem to have none of its magnificent geography, only a length. It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.” (p. 309)

Source: Library – A Natural History of Love (1994) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-679-76183-7

Extended excerpt [Non-fiction text]:

“Still, when we try to describe a smell, words fail us like the fabrications they are. Words are small shapes in the gorgeous chaos of the world. But they are shapes, they bring the world into focus, they corral ideas, they hone thoughts, they paint watercolors of perception.” (p. 7)

Source: Library – A Natural History of the Senses (1990|1995 Vintage Books ed.), International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 9780679735663