"...for many of us the world would be a poorer place without bears. We keep bears because they are a part of nature and because of what they do for the human mind, body, and soul."
"If the human race is to survive, then we must respect the rights of other species to survive. Sharing bedroom space with a grizzly bear is not practical but sharing wilderness space is. We must therefore, restrict human activity in spaces where threatened or endangered species live. We must stay out of their bedroom. Set aside some wild spaces while they yet exist. Closing the wild spaces after all of the wild things are gone will not work"
"If you see a grizzly you instantly become one of the few who have shared moments with the species that cannot adapt to the domestication of North America, the species that defines one of the few types of wilderness we have left. Feelings of fear, inspiration, and awe may generate images of pristine North America when it was complete with bison and wolves and when humans were still pioneers treading on the edge of something big and rich beyond definition."
"What we seem to want is a statistically homogenized picture of a species, when we really need to look at bears as dynamic, living mechanisms."
"Alive, the grizzly is a symbol of freedom and understanding - a sign that man can learn to conserve what is left of the earth. Extinct, it will be another fading testimony to things man should have learned more about but was too preoccupied with himself to notice. In its beleaguered condition, it is above all a symbol of what man is doing to the entire planet. If we can learn from these experiences, and learn rationally, both grizzly and man may have a chance to survive."
"It would be fitting, I think, if among the last manmade tracks on earth would be found the huge footprints of the great brown bear."
"Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is about like relegating happiness to heaven; one may never get there."
"In a world older and more complete than ours, animals move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."
"Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children."
"In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught."
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. ...I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man."
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."
"A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help."
"It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out. Of all the creatures ever made he (man) is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one...that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot."
"Only to the white man was nature a wilderness and only to him was the land 'infested' with 'wild' animals and 'savage' people. To us it was tame, Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery."
"A civilized society must count animals as worthy of moral consideration and ethical treatment. The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees."
"Animals do feel like us, also joy, love, fear and pain but they cannot grasp the spoken word. It is our obligation to take their part and continue to resist the people who profit by them, who slaughter them and who torture them."
"I prefer the company of animals more than the company of humans. Certainly, a wild animal is cruel. But to be merciless is the privilege of civilized humans."
"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."
"All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals."
"Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity — these are strictly confined to man; he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them. They hide nothing. They are not ashamed."
"Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to."
"Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms."
"If an animal does something, we call it instinct; if we do the same thing for the same reason, we call it intelligence."
"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
"An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language."
"It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked."
"It is man's sympathy with all creatures that first makes him truly a man. Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace."
"Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures."
"Our task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."
"Mercy to animals means mercy to mankind."
"The feeling of respect for all species will help us recognize the noblest nature in ourselves."
"Our moral and ethical responsibility is to protect other species in the spirit of husbandry rather than destroy them in and attitude of conquest."
"This we know. The Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
"Life is life's greatest gift. Guard the life of another creature as you would your own because it is your own. On life's scale of values, the smallest is no less precious to the creature who owns it than the largest..."
"The Saints are exceedingly loving and gentle to mankind, and even to brute beasts...surely we ought to show them (animals) great kindness and gentleness for many reasons, but, above all, because they are of the same origin as ourselves."
"Conservation is sometimes perceived as stopping everything cold, as holding whooping cranes in higher esteem than people. It is up to science to spread the understanding that the choice is not between wild places or people, it is between a rich or an impoverished existence for man."
"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That's the essence of inhumanity."
"The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."
"Those who wish to pet and baby wildlife love them, but those who respect their natures and wish to let them live their natural lives, love them more."
"If you haven't got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble."
"The grizzly is a symbol of what is right with the world."
"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from great lonliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. "
"Bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear's days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours and was poured from the same fountain..."
"If we can learn to live with bears, especially the grizzly, and if we can learn to accommodate the needs of bears in their natural environment, then maybe we can also find ways to use the finite resources of our continent and still maintain some of the diversity and natural beauty that were here when Columbus arrived."
"When all the dangerous cliffs are fenced off, all the trees that might fall on people are cut down, all of the insects that bite have been poisoned...and all of the grizzlies are dead because they are occasionally dangerous, the wilderness will not be made safe. Rather, the safety will have destroyed the wilderness."
"Bears keep me humble. They help me to keep the world in perspective and to understand where I fit on the spectrum of life. We need to preserve the wilderness and its monarchs for ourselves, and for the dreams of children. We should fight for these things as if our life depended on it, because it does."
"The wilderness is not a renewable resource. If it is possible for humans and wildlife to coexist, we must endeavor to understand as much as possible about their needs to minimize negative impacts."
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
"Shall we, because we walk on our hind feet, assume to ourselves only the privilege of imperishability?"
"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men."
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
"Many people fear nothing more terribly than to take a position which stands out sharply and clearly from the prevailing opinion. The tendency of most is to adopt a view that is so ambiguous that it will include everything and so popular that it will include everybody."
"Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom."
"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."
"There is nothing that cannot happen today."
"For it is in giving that we receive."
