Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.

Science is a set of rules to keep us from telling lies to each other. All scientists really have is a reputation for telling the truth.

If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.

Nothing has to be true, but everything has to sound true.

We mythologists know very well that myths and legends contain borrowings, moral lessons, nature cycles, and a hundred other distorting influences, and we labor to cut them away and get to what might be a kernel of truth. In fact, these same techniques must be applied to the most sober histories, for no one writes the clear and apparent truth-if such a thing can even be said to exist.

One of Walt Whitman's best-known poems is this one: When I heard the learn'd astronomer,.... The trouble is, Whitman is talking through his hat, but the poor soul didn't know any better

It's the writing that teaches you.