What is artificial?

Famous quotes containing the word artificial:

    Description is revelation. It is not
    The thing described, nor false facsimile.
    It is an artificial thing that exists,
    In its own seeming, plainly visible,
    Yet not too closely the double of our lives,
    Intenser than any actual life could be....
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    How prone poor Humanity is to dam up the minutest remnants of its freedom, and build an artificial roof to prevent it looking up to the clear blue sky.
    —E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)

    Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility. Nothing adds such dignity to character as the recognition of one’s self-sovereignty; the right to an equal place, everywhere conceded—a place earned by personal merit, not an artificial attainment by inheritance, wealth, family and position.
    Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)