“We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domestic plants and animals but rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves.”

“We are in the first age since the dawn of civilization in which people have dared to think it practicable to make the benefits of civilization available to the whole human race.”

“To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization.”

“Civilization is a movement and not a condition a voyage and not a harbor.”

“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”

“The history of almost every civilization furnishes examples of geographical expansion coinciding with deterioration in quality.”

“The brown paper bag is the only thing civilized man has produced that does not seem out of place in nature.”

“A heart pulsating in harmony with the circulation of sap and the flow of rivers? A body with the rhythms of the earth in its movements? No. Instead: a mind, shut off from the oxygen of alert senses...”

“Have you noticed how dogs sniff at one another when they meet? It seems to be their nature.- Yes; it's a funny habit.- No, it's not funny; you are wrong there. There's nothing funny in nature, howe...”