As the wind of time blows into the sails of space, the unfolding of
the universe nurtures the evolution of matter under the pressure of
information. From divided to condensed and on to organized, living,
and thinking matter, the path is toward an increase in complexity
through self-organization.
-- Jean-Marie Lehn, Toward complex matter: Supramolecular chemistry and self-organization, PNAS 99:8 p. 4763




First we have a vague circle of electrons and other inferior units;
then a better-defined circle of simple bodies in which the elements
are distributed as periodic functions of the atom of hydrogen; farther
on another circle, of inexhaustible molecular combinations; and
lastly, jumping or recoiling from the infinitesimal to the infinite, a
circle of stars and galaxies. these multiple zones of the cosmos
envelop without imitating each other in such a way that we cannot pass
from one to another by a simple change of coefficients. Here is no
repetition of the same theme on a different scale. The order and the
design do not appear except in the whole. The mesh of the universe is
the universe itself.
-- Teilhard de Chardin


In every domain, when anything exceeds a certain measurement, it
suddenly changes its aspect, condition, or nature. The curve doubles
back, the surface contracts to a point, the solid disintegrates, the
liquid boils, the germ cell divides, intuition suddenly bursts on the
piled up facts... 
-- Teilhard de Chardin



Taken as a whole, the biosphere would thus represent only a simple
branch within and above other less progressive or less fortunate
proliferations of pre-life...The universe had already begun to ramify
and it doubtless goes on ramifying indefinitely...
--  Teilhard de Chardin