There is always an origin to writing something (or aptly, a citation.)
"I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
We assimilate into ourselves different forms of structure from each, whether biological or semiotic. Each structure, biomolecules or language, equip us to model and navigate our environment, and persist a bit longer.
Life thrives when its cellular membranes (and bodily boundaries to an extent) are awash in structural microdiversity of friendly chemicals (aka nutrients). More access to structural microdiversity means more ability to navigate complex environments, more ability to choose from the surrounding otherness and decide what gets to cross inside your boundary and become tomorrow's you, tomorrows self.
Minds thrive similarly when immersed in diversity of thought and experience. (See Alex Pentland's Social Physics book) These things aren't as different as they might seem, if you cross your eyes and look at it abstractly like a universe might.
The universe doesn't really quibble between the information that my body "knows" through its structure, and the information my mind "knows" through language. Everything is made of information, and the structures of information that best prepare us for futures will persist :)
If the patron of the local pub had delivered the quote in question, we would tell him to put down his tenth beer. But since it was said by an intellectual, who has nothing more to say on the matter than the patron mentioned above could say, we take it at face value.
- An author on a popular product who is questioning copyright.