“We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve, but to strive.”
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There

“It seems a shame that less than 1 percent of all the species that ever lived survive today and that only about 5 percent of the sum of the world's living species have names. Yet, our preservation efforts must be built on a solid foundation: an ordered taxonomy of living species. So we are forced to do as politicians do--compromise and move forward--often before all the required data are at hand. Every good scientist I know finds such an exercise counterintuitive, difficult, and sometimes impossible. But the really good ones try anyway.”
― Stephen J. O'Brien, Tears of the Cheetah: The Genetic Secrets of Our Animal Ancestors

“A supposedly daring insight came up, disguised as a question: Dr. Cole, aren't humans the most invasive species of all? She'd fielded that one many times before, during public lectures and even in her days as a teaching assistant [...] 'I'm not unsympathetic to that line of thinking,' she answered, 'but even if it's true, we're also the only species in any position to do anything about it.”
― Joe Pitkin, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 2012

“Too many people believe that dead trees must be removed to allow for beautiful lawns and landscapes. Since my conversion, however, dead trees create beautiful landscapes...They're buffet tables, lookouts, and condominiums.”
― Eli Knapp

“Annoying neighbor woman keeps telling me to get a job. You can't just sit around and do nothing. You'd be out on the street if you were MY child... she keeps saying. So what do you want me to do, exactly? Study Elephants in Norway, like YOUR kids? No... she says... you need a PHD for that job. Well I rest my case. Fuck work.”
― Dmitry Dyatlov

“Humans are subtracting animals and adding themselves; beings that wear fur or bark are cut down by those in cotton.”
― Erika Howsare, The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors

“I'm better than Jesus Christ”
― Evan, 屍靈高跟鞋

“I seek merely the miraculous, and for that I am
positioned in exactly the best of places: a mostly
wet, hard sphere in the third planetary orbit from
a star called sun, the place where miracles come so
cheap that they are routinely discarded.
Hard to believe, I know.”
― Carl Safina, Becoming Wild: How Animals Learn Who They Are