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In the western world our thinking has for many centuries been dominated by the Jewish-Christian concept of man's relation to nature, in which man is regarded as the master of all the earth's inhabitants. Out of this there easily grew the thought that everything on earth-animate or inanimate, animal, vegetable, or mineral-and indeed the earth itself-had been created expressly for man.

— Rachel Carson Speech at Scripps College (1962)

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More quotes by Rachel Carson

In our modern world nothing may be taken for granted-not even the spring songs that herald the return of the birds.

Vanishing Americans (1959)

I like to define biology as the history of the earth and all its life — past, present, and future.

Preface to Humane Biology Projects (1961)

Man's future welfare and probably even his survival depend upon his learning to live in harmony, rather than in combat, with these forces.

As human beings, we are part of the whole stream of life.

Speech (1954)

The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials.

Silent Spring (1962)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Rachel Carson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.