When some high-sounding institute states that a compound is harmless or a process free of risk, it is wise to know whence the institute or the scientists who work there obtain their financial support. – Lancet, editorial on the "medical-industrial complex," 1973

Nature always strikes back. It takes all the running we can do to remain in the same place. – Rene Dubos, Medical Utopias, 1961

One of the first laws against air pollution came in 1300 when King Edward I decreed the death penalty for burning of coal. At least one execution for that offense is recorded. But economics triumphed over health considerations, and air pollution became an appalling problem in England. – Glenn T. Seaborg, Atomic Energy Commission chairman, speech, Argonne National La

When a man says to me, “I have the intensest love of nature,” at once I know that he has none. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals, 1857