[A]ny species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its own expansion.

You shouldn't have to settle for rabbits if what you want is deer

There are times when having too much to say can be as dumbfounding as having too little.

And in spite of all the mastery we've attained, we don't have enough mastery to stop devastating the world, or to repair the devastation we've already wrought.

But we're not humanity, we're just one culture - one culture out of hundreds of thousands that have lived their vision on this planet and sung their song. If it were humanity that needed changing, then we'd be out of luck. But it isn't humanity that needs changing, it's just...us.

The world is not going to survive very much longer as humanity's captive.

Yes,I'm afraid you're right. Trial and error isn't a bad way to learn how to build an aircraft,but it can be a disastrous way to learn how to build a civilization.