“When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do.”

If somebody dumps something noxious in my back yard, the dumper is the last one I would call on to repair the damage.

We have become frighteningly effective at altering nature.

Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species.

My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico.

I actually love diving at night; you see a lot of fish then that you don’t see in the daytime.

The best scientists and explorers have the attributes of kids! They ask question and have a sense of wonder.

I love music of all kinds, but there’s no greater music than the sound of my grandchildren laughing; my kids, too.

Just as we have the power to harm the ocean, we have the power to put in place policies and modify our own behavior in ways that would be an insurance policy for the future of the sea, for the creatures there, and for us, protecting special critical areas in the ocean.

There are some who would like to see the oil rigs removed right down to the ground once their job is done, and there are others, and I count myself among them, who think that once they are in place they begin to be adopted by life in the ocean as a habitat.

They have curiosity. ‘Who, what, where, why, when, and how!’ They never stop asking questions, and I never stop asking questions, just like a five year old.

I am not in any hurry to grow up.

What we once used as weapons of war, we now use as weapons against fish.

I’m not against extracting a modest amount of wildlife out of the ocean for human consumption, but I am really concerned about the large-scale industrial fishing that engages in destructive practices like trawling and longlining.

We wouldn’t be able to survive. We would have a hard time surviving if we were transported to the time when dinosaurs were around.

I’ve always said, ‘Underwater or on top, men and women are compatible.’

To lose it means that we will dismember the vital systems that make the Arctic work. It’s not just a cost to the people who live there. It’s a cost to all people everywhere.

A fair share of anything is starvation diet to an egomaniac.

I could be anything I wanted because I was an American. And I hope that that’s really what’s propelled me into public service.

The spirit of advaita is not to keep away from anything, but to keep in tune with everything

People will buy anything that is one to a customer.

Man has always to be busy with his thoughts if anything is to be accomplished.

It’s not when you realize that nothing can help you — religion, pride, anything — it’s when you realize that you don’t need any aid.

I never spend my time doing anything I’ll have to do again tomorrow.

I left Scotland when I was 16 because I had no qualifications for anything but the Navy, having left school at 13.