A lot of scientists act on their beliefs and so do things that look crazy to the rest of us.

It was a world of acts, and words had no more influence on acts than the sound of a waterfall has on the flow of the stream.

The only part of an argument that really matters is what we think of the people arguing. X claims a, Y claims b. They make arguments to support their claims with any number of points. But when their listeners remember the discussion, what matters is simply that X believes a and Y believes b. People then form their judgment on what they think of X and Y.

Historical analogy is the last refuge of people who can't grasp the current situation.

We should conceive of ourselves not as rulers of Earth, but as highly powerful, conscious stewards: The Earth is given to us in trust, and we can screw it up or make it work well and sustainably.

The idea that each corporation can be a feudal monarchy and yet behave in its corporate action like a democratic citizen concerned for the world we live in is one of the great absurdities of our time—

It's fragile what we know. It's gone every time we forget. Then someone has to learn it all over again.