Man will survive as a species for one reason: He can adapt to the destructive effects of our power-intoxicated technology and of our ungoverned population growth, to the dirt, pollution and noise of a New York or Tokyo. And that is the tragedy. It is not man the ecological crisis threatens to destroy but the quality of human life.

The word "wilderness" occurs approximately three hundred times in the Bible, and all its meanings are derogatory.

Man shapes himself through decisions that shape his environment.

But solving problems of disease is not the same thing as creating health and happiness. (...) Health and happiness are the expression of the manner in which the individual responds and adapts to the challenges that he meets in everyday life.

Nature always strikes back. It takes all the running we can do to remain in the same place.

In 1946, Oxford University in England was offered large funds to create a new Institute of Human Nutrition. The University refused the funds on the ground that the knowledge of human nutrition was essentially complete, and that the proposed institution would soon run out of meaningful research projects.

The very process of living is a continual interplay between the individual and his environment, often taking the form of a struggle resulting in injury or disease.