Rachel Carson

"The pleasures, the values of contact with the natural world are not reserved for the scientists alone, but are available to anyone who will place himself under the influence of a lonely mountain peak."

"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life."

"It matters not how small the beginning may seem to be - what is once well done is done forever."

"The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water, and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it."

"In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught."

"The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think than what to think."

"There is a kind of elation that comes from having connected with one's deepest purposes."

"It takes time to see the world, and we have so little time."

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community; it is wrong when it tends otherwise."

"I have always been afraid of losing things that meant much to me. But I have found that it is often the people and things we thought we should hold onto most tightly that slip away."

"When any living thing has ceased to struggle, the only pitable thing is that it has ceased to live."

"The more we struggle against biological facts, the more our inner wisdom cries out that we cannot afford to lose contact with the earth and its web of life."

"Even in a single lifetime, you can see the enormous impact that human beings have on the world."

"We still haven't become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe."

"Man cannot occupy any position in the universe except that which he is fitted for."

"A woman is fully human only when she has achieved her fundamental purpose."

"It is ironic that the road to true enlightenment is often blocked by those who claim to be guardians of knowledge."

"The discipline of the scientific method is simply a framework for understanding the natural world in its entirety."

"Our quarrel is not with progress itself, but with blind and purposeless progress."

"What is the value of a human life if we have poisoned the world that sustains it?"

"Every one of us is in some degree responsible for the extermination of wildlife in this country."

"When we attempt to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

"The face of the earth is changing faster now than at any other time in recorded history."

"To understand the present, we must first understand what preceded it."

"Man's endeavor to control nature is ultimately an attempt to increase his own power and to decrease his dependence."

"There is one quality which must be present in our modern world if we are to survive, and that is wisdom."

"The tragedy is that it takes a catastrophe to open people's eyes to reality."

"A scientist worthy of the name is one who accepts responsibility for the consequences of his work."

"We live in an age of specialists, each isolated in his own cell of expertise."

"The question that confronts us is not whether we can afford to spend money on conservation - it is whether we can afford not to."