A person is either the effect of his environment or is able to have an effect upon his environment. – L. Ron Hubbard

Dig a trench through a landfill and you will see layers of phone books like geographical strata or layers of cake…. During a recent landfill dig in Phoenix, I found newspapers dating from 1952 that looked so fresh you might read one over breakfast. – William Rathje, The Economist, 8 September 1990

Economic advance is not the same thing as human progress. – John Clapham, A Concise Economic History of Britain, 1957

For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death. – Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962