Jerry Cagle

“Animals under early domestication received shelter, a diet altered by agriculture, and protection from predators through relative confinement. This reduced their sensory needs, facilitating further domestication. As our domesticated animals settled in for a life of reduced activity and stimulation, so did humans. As people provided safer, more sedentary conditions for their livestock, they did the same for themselves. The confinement was mutual. By moving out of nature and settling onto farms, we became in a real sense just another farm animal.”
― Carl Safina, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

“Climbing, it turns out, is a nearly perfect vehicle for flow, which may be one of the reasons it has become so popular. For the climber, the goal may be to successfully climb a difficult rock pitch without falling. It is a meaningful, challenging goal that requires skill and focused attention because you will fall off if you fail to hang on. It provides immediate feedback. For the free-solo climber, who chooses to climb the pitch without a rope or protection, the goal is even more meaningful and challenging and requires even more intense focus. The feedback is also starkly clear and immediate—you don’t just fall if you fail to hang on; you probably die.”
― Jeff Smoot, All and Nothing: Inside Free Soloing

“Wolves and humans can understand each other better. That’s one reason why we invited wolves, instead of chimpanzees, into our lives. Wolves and dogs and us; it’s not surprising that we found one another. We deserve one another. We were made for one another.”
― Carl Safina, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

“Darwin coined the term “natural selection” because he was comparing the mechanics of what happens in nature with the artificial selection applied in raising livestock. But nature doesn’t really select; it filters. The environment works as a filter, and as the environment changes, it filters differently. The point is: as the pressures change, we remain a work in progress. Look at the evolving creature in the mirror. Realize that we’ve got a ways to go before we’re universally as good to one another, or as much fun with one another, as are bonobos.”
― Carl Safina, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel