The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw Quotes

“People like Sharon are rare and strange and sometimes aggravating. They don't calm choppy waters. They barge in and stir things up when and make people frown when they'd rather smile. But sometimes all that smiling acts as a cover for a lot of wicked acts. But a good portion of my life I believed that a law of benevolent action held sway in the world. This law maintained that if you did the right thing and worked hard, eventually things would work out; that the world generally tended towards fairness, decency, and wisdom. But of course the world doesn't work that way. The people who learn that lesson through crushing experience and still refuse to bow to it astound me. They go on fighting, again and again and again. These people aren't perfect. They aren't simple heroes. They are complex human beings. And we need them. Because without them the world would be lost.”
― Bruce Barcott, The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird

“They could take this away from you, too," I said.
"Who take what?"
"Government. Shut down the harpy project."
"Nahh," she said. "No way. And even if they did, I'd find something else. You don't stop. If you lose a battle, that doesn't mean you stop. You keep fighting, You find other battles. The work to save what's left of nature is endless. You can get really down and depressed. But you can't stop and stand aside and let the wheels keep rolling in the wrong direction.”
― Bruce Barcott, The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird

“What will our descendants think when they come upon Chalillo? When they scrape away the deep layer of dirt covering in stepping-stone facade, what will they make of the dogleg desig, the Chinese gauges, the long-stopped turbines? What will they make of the skeletons and fossils long gone? Will they connect the two?”
― Bruce Barcott, The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird

“How do you keep this place running?" I said. "How did you think it would work in the first place?"
She smiled. "I was dumb enough to give it a try.”
― Bruce Barcott, The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird