It takes generosity to discover the whole through others. If you realize you are only a violin, you can open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert.
We must plant the sea and herd its animals ... using the sea as
farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about -
farming replacing hunting. [Interview, 17 July 1971]
Farming as we do it is hunting, and in the sea we act like barbarians.
If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed [and] if we are not willing [to change], we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect.
What is a scientist after all? It is a curious man looking through a keyhole, the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on.
The sea is the universal sewer. [on the sea as a place "where all
kinds of pollution wind up," to House Committee on Science and
Astronautics, 28 January 1971]
The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.
We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.
No sooner does man discover intelligence than he tries to involve it in his own stupidity
A lot of people attack the sea, I make love to it.
I am not a scientist. I am, rather, an impresario of scientists.