Eye of the Albatross Quotes

“I am impressed anew by... how much the harshness that challenges life is what causes the beauty. Birds fly because they must escape predators and search for food. Trees grow skyward because they compete fiercely with other trees for light. Living things need something to push off of. Each of us needs challenges to give us the right shape.”
― Carl Safina, Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival

“The physics of an albatross’s wing differs from that of most other birds, whose bodies are designed for powered flight. That is because albatrosses are constructed more to float in the air than to fly. Compared to many other birds, which power flight with elongated “hand” bones, the proportions of an albatross wing are humanlike—long arm bones, short “hand” bones—almost as though humans were also meant to glide. Or as if, were we suddenly transformed into birds, we would most naturally become albatrosses.”
― Carl Safina, Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival