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.

Nowhere on the shore is the relation of a creature to its surroundings a matter of a single cause and effect; each living thing is bound to its world by many threads, weaving the intricate design of the fabric of life.

The shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water.

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.

For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it's a pity we use it so little.

The more I learned about the use of pesticides, the more appalled I became. I realized that here was the material for a book. What I discovered was that everything which meant most to me as a naturalist was being threatened, and that nothing I could do would be more important.

Then the song of a whitethroat, pure and ethereal, with the dreamy quality of remembered joy.