David Toth

“Defeat begins with the fear that one had lost.”
― Kōbō Abe, The Woman in the Dunes

“A truly brave man is ever serene; he is never taken by surprise; nothing ruffles the equanimity of his spirit. In the heat of battle he remains cool; in the midst of catastrophes he keeps level his mind. Earthquakes do not shake him, he laughs at storms. We admire him as truly great, who, in the menacing presence of danger or death, retains his self-possession; who, for instance, can compose a poem under impending peril or hum a strain in the face of death. Such indulgence betraying no tremor in the writing or in the voice, is taken as an infallible index of a large nature—of what we call a capacious mind (Yoyū), which, far from being pressed or crowded, has always room for something more.”
― Inazo Nitobe, Bushido, The Soul Of Japan

“Az, hogy ez a könyv kifejezetten egy faj helyzetével foglalkozik - az emberi fajéval -, semmit nem jelent e faj fontosságát tekintve. Persze az ember valóban különleges. A két füle között a bolygó legbonyolultabb biológiai gépezetét hordozza. A komlexitás azonban nem minden, és nem az evolúció célja. Ezen a bolygón minden faj egyedülálló. A páratlanság itt túlkínálatban lévő árucikk.”
― Matt Ridley, Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

“When the world changes faster than species can adapt, many fall out. This is the case whether the agent drops from the sky in a fiery streak or drives to work in a Honda.”
― Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History