Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numberous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms-up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested-probably once belonged to Shakespeare. A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to name. Bill Bryson
About This Quote

Humans are the most recycled of all living things. We are one of the few species that can be said to be made up of many people. Long before we were born, most of us have died and been taken care of by someone else. At the time of our birth, our bodies are full of dead people’s bodies, and their bodies are full of dead people’s bodies. We all come from someone else.

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  1. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only...
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