The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.

If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.

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.

Always the edge of the sea remains an elusive and indefinable boundary. The shore has a dual nature, changing with the swing of the tides, belonging now to the land, now to the sea.

The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the right to be called civilized.

Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?