“If a fish were an anthropologist, the last thing it would discover would be water.”

We – mankind – stand at the center of an evolutionary crisis, with a new evolutionary device – our consciousness of the crisis – as our unique contribution.

Never ever depend on governments or institutions to solve any major problems. All social change comes from the passion of individuals.

With the exception of the few cases to be discussed in the next chapter, adolescence represented no period of crisis or stress, but was instead an orderly developing of a set of slowly maturing interests and activities.

We are at a point in history where a proper attention to space, and especially near space, may be absolutely crucial in bringing the world together.

There is no greater insight into the future than recognizing when we save our children, we save ourselves

Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.

As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.

It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.

If man has not found ways to deal with environmental problems such as water and air pollution by 1998, it will be too late. The future is not determined and it lies in our own hands.

My grandmother wanted me to get a good education, so she kept me as far away from schools as possible.

Sooner or later I’m going to die, but I’m not going to retire.

Human nature is almost unbelievably malleable, responding accurately and contrastingly to contrasting cultural conditions.

in all cultures, human beings – in order to be human – must understand the nonhuman.

Even though the ship may go down, the journey goes on.

The negative cautions of science are never popular.

We need every human gift and cannot afford to neglect any gift because of artificial barriers of sex or race or class or national origin.