Rachel Carson Quotes

“But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”

“For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it's a pity we use it so little.”

“Here and there awareness is growing that man, far from being the overlord of all creation, is himself part of nature, subject to the same cosmic forces that control all other life.

Man's future welfare and probably even his survival depend upon his learning to live in harmony, rather than in combat, with these forces.”

“I like to define biology as the history of the earth and all its life — past, present, and future. To understand biology is to understand that all life is linked to the earth from which it came; it is to understand that the stream of life, flowing out of the dim past into the uncertain future, is in reality a unified force, though composed of an infinite number and variety of separate lives.”

“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in you will interest other people.”

“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.”

“Only within the 20th Century has biological thought been focused on ecology, or the relation of the living creature to its environment.

Awareness of ecological relationships is — or should be — the basis of modern conservation programs, for it is useless to attempt to preserve a living species unless the kind of land or water it requires is also preserved. So delicately interwoven are the relationships that when we disturb one thread of the community fabric we alter it all — perhaps almost imperceptibly, perhaps so drastically that destruction follows.”

“The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history. It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.”

“The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.”

“The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves.”

“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 the destruction of our race.

Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction.”

“The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the right to be called civilized.”

“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 winds, the sea, and the moving tides are what they are. If there is wonder and beauty and majesty in them, science will discover these qualities.

If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.”

“Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.”

“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.”

“Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is – whether its victim is human or animal – we cannot expect things to be much better in this world.

We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing, we set back the progress of humanity.”

“A Who's Who of pesticides is therefore of concern to us all. If we are going to live so intimately with these chemicals eating and drinking them, taking them into the very marrow of our bones – we had better know something about their nature and their power.”

“Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good?”

“How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind?

Yet this is precisely what we have done. We have done it, moreover, for reasons that collapse the moment we examine them.”

“If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no such problem.”

“If, having endured much, we have at last asserted out 'right to know', and if by knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and frightening risks, then we should no longer accept the counsel of those who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals; we should look about and see what other course is open to us.”

“In nature nothing exists alone.”

“It is also an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged.”

“It is not my contention that chemical insecticides must never be used. I do contend that we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potentials for harm.

We have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge.”

“Life is a miracle beyond our comprehension, and we should reverence it even where we have to struggle against it.”

“Nature has introduced great variety into the landscape, but man has displayed a passion for simplifying it. Thus he undoes the built-in checks and balances by which nature holds the species within bounds.”