"The premise of the Taker story is 'the world belongs to man'. … The premise of the Leaver story is 'man belongs to the world'."
"The mythology of your culture hums in your ears so constantly that no one pays the slightest bit of attention to it. Of course man is conquering space and the atom and the deserts and the oceans and the elements. According to your mythology, this is what he was BORN to do."
"No one species shall make the life of the world its own.' … That's one expression of the law. Here's another: 'The world was not made for any one species."
"[A]ny species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its own expansion."
"The obvious can sometimes be illuminating when perceived in an unhabitual way."
"It's the idea that people living close to nature tend to be noble. It's seeing all those sunsets that does it. You can't watch a sunset and then go off and set fire to your neighbor's tepee. Living close to nature is wonderful for your mental health."