Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world.

Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good?

Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world.

To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.

The ocean is a place of paradoxes. It is the home of the great white shark, two-thousand-pound killer of the seas, and of the hundred-foot blue whale, the largest animal that ever lived. It is also the home of living things so small that your two hands might scoop up as many of them as there are stars in the Milky Way.

But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.