Jacques Yves Cousteau

The road to the future leads us smack into the wall. We simply ricochet off the alternatives that destiny offers. Our survival is no more than a question of 25, 50 or perhaps 100 years.

If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect.

Mankind has probably done more damage to the Earth in the 20th century than in all of previous human history.

No sooner does man discover intelligence than he tries to involve it in his own stupidity.

I am not a scientist. I am, rather, an impresario of scientists.

The real cure for our environmental problems is to understand that our job is to salvage Mother Nature. We are facing a formidable enemy in this field. It is the hunters... and to convince them to leave their guns on the wall is going to be very difficult.

The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it.

What is a scientist after all? It is a curious man looking through a keyhole, the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on.

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

People protect what they love.

If we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work.

The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.