p. xiii And here is one more circumstance on which I often reflect: as a child I could in theory have spoken to old men who visited you at Walden Pond when they were children of the same age. Thus only one living memory separates us. At the cabin site even that seems to visit.
p. xxi When you stripped your outside obligations to the survivable minimum, you place your trained and very active mind in an unendurable vacuum. And this is the essence of the matter: in order to fill the vacuum, you discovered the human proclivity to embrace the natural world.
p. 102 The somber archaeology of vanished species has taught us the following lessons: -The noble savage never existed. -Eden occupied was a slaughterhouse. -Paradise found is paradise lost. Humanity has so far played the role of planetary killer, concerned only with its own short-term survival.
p. 151 Moral reasoning is not a cultural artifact invented for convenience. It is and always has been the vital glue of society, the means by which transactions are made and honored to ensure survival. Every society is guided by ethical precepts, and every one of its members is expected to follow moral leadership and ethics-based tribal law.
p. 152 The first step is to turn away from claims of inherent moral superiority based on political ideology and religious dogma. The problems of the environment have become too complicated to be solved by piety and an unyielding clash of good intentions.
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