“Farming as we do it is hunting, and in the sea we act like barbarians.”

We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about – farming replacing hunting.

The sea is the universal sewer.

However fragmented the world, however intense the national rivalries, it is an inexorable fact that we become more interdependent every day.

The real cure for our environmental problems is to understand that our job is to salvage Mother Nature.

People protect what they love.

we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect.

If we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed.

Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.

We are facing a formidable enemy in this field. It is the hunters… and to convince them to leave their guns on the wall is going to be very difficult.

Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.

I am not a scientist. I am, rather, an impresario of scientists.

When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.

I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence.

Our survival is no more than a question of 25, 50 or perhaps 100 years.

The awareness of our environment came progressively in all countries with different outlets.

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: We are our own Huns.

I’m not a barbarian.

The middle class, that prisoner of the barbarian 20th century.

But China, they’ve been there for 3,000 years and are paying no attention to the barbarians and don’t see any need to.

Who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether natives or immigrants, remains obscure; one must remember we are dealing with barbarians.