The ocean is a place of paradoxes. It is the home of the great white shark, two-thousand-pound killer of the seas, and of the hundred-foot blue whale, the largest animal that ever lived. It is also the home of living things so small that your two hands might scoop up as many of them as there are stars in the Milky Way.

The shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water.

The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the right to be called civilized.

The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil.

It is ironic to think that man might determine his own future by something so seemingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray.

Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.

Autumn comes to the sea with a fresh blaze of phosphorescence, when every wave crest is aflame. Here and there the whole surface may glow with sheets of cold fire, while below schools of fish pour through the water like molten metal.