What are atoms?

Famous quotes containing the word atoms:

    Do but consider this small dust, here running in the glass,
    By atoms moved.
    Could you believe that this the body was
    Of one that loved?
    And in his mistress’ flame playing like a fly,
    Turned to cinders by her eye?
    Yes, and in death as life unblest,
    To have’t expressed,
    Even ashes of lovers find no rest.
    Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    No imperfection in budded mountain,
    Valleys breathe, heaven and earth move together,
    daisies push inches of yellow air, vegetables tremble,
    green atoms shimmer in grassy mandalas,
    sheep speckle the mountainside, revolving their jaws with empty eyes,
    horses dance in the warm rain,
    Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)

    Scatter my ashes, strew them in the air:
    Lord since thou know’st where all these atoms are,
    I’m hopeful thou’lt recover once my dust,
    And confident thou’lt raise me with the just.
    —James Graham Marquess of Montrose (1612–1650)