Samuel Butler said (1877),

A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.

I have quite a bit to say about this in The Information. The subject, as you might guess, is genes. And then memes. There have been some witty variations on this theme. One of my personal favorites is Daniel Dennett’s (1995):

A scholar is a library’s way of making another library.

Dear reader, can you offer more along these lines? (Use Google if you want, but you’ll have to skip past the sites with instructions on boiling, scrambling, and poaching.)