All successful life is

All successful life is

Adaptable,

Opportunistic,

Tenacious,

Interconnected, and

Fecund.

Understand this.

Use it.

Shape God.

—Earthseed: The Books of the Living

Any Change may bear seeds of benefit

Any Change may bear seeds of benefit.

Seek them out.

Any Change may bear seeds of harm.

Beware,

God is infinitely malleable.

God is Change.

—Earthseed: The Books of the Living

When apparent stability disintegrates

When apparent stability disintegrates,

As it must—

God is Change—

People tend to give in

To fear and depression,

To need and greed.

When no influence is strong enough

To unify people

They divide.

They struggle,

One against one,

Group against group.

For surgical, position, power.

They remember old hates and generate new ones,

They create chaos and nurture it,

They kill and kill and kill, 

Until they are exhausted and destroyed,

Until they are conquered by outside forces,

Or until one of them becomes

A leader

Most will follow,

Or a tyrant

Most fear.

—Earthseed: The Books of the Living

Civilization

Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing adaptation. 

Civilization, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces.

—Earthseed: The Books of the Living

All struggles

All struggles

Are essentially 

power struggles.

Who will rule,

Who will lead,

Who will define,

refine,

confine,

design,

Who will dominate.

All struggles

Are essentially

power struggles,

And most

are no more intellectual

than two rams

knocking their heads together.

—Earthseed: The Books of the Living

To get along with God

To get along with God, 

Consider the consequences of your behavior.

—Earthseed: the Books of the Living 

Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler

A tree

A tree

Cannot grow

In its parents’ shadows.

—Earthseed: The Books of the Living

Why is the universe

Why is the universe?

To shape God.

Why is God?

To shape the universe.

All that you touch, 

You Change.

All that you Change,

Changes you.

The only lasting truth

Is Change.

God

Is Change.

—Earthseed: The Books of the Living

Prodigy

Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanaticism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all.

—Earthseed: The Books of the Living