» Why is geometry often described as 'cold' and 'dry'? One reason lies in its inability to describe the shape of a cloud, a mountain, a coastline, or a tree. Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line [...] Nature exhibits not simply a higher degree but an altogether different level of complexity [...] Bottomless wonders spring from simple rules, which are repeated without end. «
Benoît Mandelbrot, Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension, 1977.