We can only truly be civilised people when we have regular and meaningful contact with the wild world
Simon BarnesIf you are old and you wish to be young again, if only for a moment, try and identify a dragonfly.
Simon BarnesThe comfort zone is always the most desirable place to be. But in settling for comfort, there is a price to pay and it comes in the death of ambition, of hope, of youth and the death of self.
Simon BarnesEverybody loves birdsong. It's a human need... the sound of birds gives a deep, if sometimes almost unnoticed, pleasure
Simon BarnesHumans lived for several million years as fully wild beings: only in the last 10, 000 did we invent agriculture; only in the last couple of centuries did we invent industry. We are a species that has spent 99 per cent of its history as hunter-gatherers. We haven't had time for our unconscious minds and our unconscious needs to have changed. If you like, our souls have not changed, and this is true whether or not we believe that we have them.
Simon Barnes