David Rains Wallace > Quotes

“Land and water are not really separate things, but they are separate words, and we perceive through words.”
― David Rains Wallace, Untamed Garden and Other Personal Essays

“A flower's structure leads a bee toward having pollen adhere to its body . . . we don't know of any such reason why beautiful places attract humans.”
― David Rains Wallace, Untamed Garden and Other Personal Essays

“All things human begin with words.”
― David Rains Wallace, Untamed Garden and Other Personal Essays

“Life is stranger than biology textbooks.”
― David Rains Wallace, Untamed Garden and Other Personal Essays

“Every time we exterminate a predator, we are in a sense creating a new predator.”
― David Rains Wallace, Untamed Garden and Other Personal Essays

“Compared to forest or aquatic ecosystems, grassland is unstable. It requires rather precise geological and climatic conditions, and if these conditions are not maintained--if too much rain falls, or too little--it quickly turns into forest or desert, both of which are dominated by woody plants. This instability is reflected in the spectacular but brief careers of various grassland faunas. Humanity, with its dazzling symbioses, preadaptations, and neoteny, is the most spectacular of these--and may well be the briefest.”
― David Rains Wallace, The Klamath Knot: Explorations of Myth and Evolution

“We come into the world as wild things and go out the same way, no matter how many boxes of lead or concrete we sheath about our bones (and the faster we consume the resources that eons of creative wildness have left us, the faster will the wild forces of deterioration pull us down). So it is not enough to look back and admire wildness as our heritage, we must look forward to it as well.”
― David Rains Wallace, Idle Weeds: The Life of an Ohio Sandstone Ridge