There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before. – Robert Lynd, The Blue Lion and Other Essays
The desire to build a risk-free society has always been a sign of decadence. It has meant that the nation has given up, that it no longer believes in its destiny, that it has ceased to aspire to greatness, and has retired from history to pet itself. – Henry Fairlie, quoted in Conservation Foundation Letter, November 1981