It is to the Riddle of the Sphinx that I have devoted fifty years of professional life as an anthropologist.

Most of us have lost that sense of unity of biosphere and humanity which would bind and reassure us all with an affirmation of beauty. Most of us do not today believe that whatever the ups and down of detail within our limited experience, the larger whole is primarily beautiful.

The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.

A man walking is never in balance, but always correcting for imbalance.

Desired substance, things, patterns, or sequences of experience that are in some sense "good" for the organism - items of diet, conditions of life, temperature, entertainment, sex, and so forth - are never such that more of the something is always better than less of the something. Rather, for all objects and experiences, there is a quantity that has optimum value. Above that quantity, the variable becomes toxic. To fall below that value is to be deprived.

Those who lack all idea that it is possible to be wrong can learn nothing except know-how.

Language commonly stresses only one side of any interaction.