“What an irony it is that these living beings whose shade we sit in,whose fruit we eat, whose limbs we climb, whose roots we water, towhom most of us rarely give a second thought, are so poorlyunderstood. We need to come, as soon as possible, to a profoundunderstanding and appreciation for trees and forests and the vitalrole they play, for they are among our best allies in the uncertainfuture that is unfolding.”

“As we expand our knowledge of good books, we shrink the circle of men whose company we appreciate.”

“O, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tales.”

“When we do cross paths with people whose beliefs and attitudes conflict with our own, we are rarely challenged.”

“The upshot of all this is that we live in a universe whose age we can't quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distances we don't altogether know, filled with matter we can't identify, operating in conformance with physical laws whose properties we don’t truly understand.”

“we learn best by placing our 'confidence in men and women whose examples invite us to love what they love'(Robert Wilken).”