Only in the last moment in history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world.

The ant world is a tumult, a noisy world of pheromones being passed back and forth.

When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.

The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology.

We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.

Hands-on experience at the critical time, not systematic knowledge, is what counts in the making of a naturalist. Better to be an untutored savage for a while, not to know the names or anatomical detail. Better to spend stretches of time just searching and dreaming.

Ninety-nine percent of all species that ever lived are now extinct.