"But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself."
Read quote
271 likes
Quote collection
Rachel Carson quotes (page 1 of 7)
131 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe, the less taste we shall have for destruction."
Read quote
267 likes
"One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, "What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew i would never see it again?"
Read quote
241 likes
"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in."
Read quote
234 likes
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."
Read quote
222 likes
"To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be."
Read quote
218 likes
"The real wealth of the Nation lies in the resources of the earth soil, water, forests, minerals, and wildlife. To utilize them for present needs while insuring their preservation for future generations requires a delicately balanced and continuing program, based on the most extensive research. Their administration is not properly, and cannot be, a matter of politics."
Read quote
217 likes
"We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven't become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe. Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself."
Read quote
213 likes
"Conservation is a cause that has no end. There is no point at which we will say our work is finished."
Read quote
207 likes
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts."
Read quote
206 likes
"The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves."
Read quote
184 likes
"The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world-the very nature of its life."
Read quote
178 likes
"Science is part of the reality of living; it is the what, the how, and the why of everything in our experience."
Read quote
164 likes
"We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature."
Read quote
148 likes
"Knowing what I do, there would be no future peace for me if I kept silent."
Read quote
129 likes
"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction."
Read quote
128 likes
"Drink in the beauty and wonder at the meaning of what you see."
Read quote
125 likes
"We live in a scientific age, yet we assume that knowledge of science is the prerogative of only a small number of human beings, isolated and priestlike in their laboratories. This is not true. The materials of science are the materials of life itself. Science is part of the reality of living; it is the way, the how and the why for everything in our experience."
Read quote
107 likes
"We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road - the one less traveled by - offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth."
Read quote
103 likes
"Short version: For the child. . ., it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. . . . It is more important to pave the way for a child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts that he is not ready to assimilate."
Read quote
91 likes