"If melodiously piping flutes sprang from the olive, would you doubt that a knowledge of flute-playing resided in the olive? And what if plane trees bore harps which gave forth rhythmical sounds? Clearly you would think in the same way that the art of music was possessed by plane trees. Why, then, seeing that the universe gives birth to beings that are animate and wise, should it not be considered animate and wise itself?"
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As quoted in De Natura Deorum by Cicero, ii. 8.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zeno_of_Citium
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Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium (334 BC – 262 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Cyprus, and was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy which he taught in Athens, from about 300 BC.
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