Assembling California Quotes

“He said, “Americans look upon water as an inexhaustible resource. It’s not, if you’re mining it. Arizona is mining groundwater.”
― John McPhee, Assembling California

“going to have an industrial society you must have places that will look terrible. Other places you set aside—to say, ‘This is the way it was.’ ”
― John McPhee, Assembling California

“Only once in the historical record has a jump on the San Andreas exceeded the jump of 1906. In 1857, near Tejon Pass outside Los Angeles, the two sides shifted thirty feet.”
― John McPhee, Assembling California

“Some miners’ wives take in washing and make more money than their husbands do. In every gold rush from this one to the Klondike, the suppliers and service industries will gather up the dust while ninety-nine per cent of the miners go home with empty pokes.”
― John McPhee, Assembling California

“On each of two porches lie big chunks of serpentine—smooth as talc, mottled black and green. When you see rocks like that on a porch, a geologist is inside.”
― John McPhee, Assembling California

“lithosphere,”
― John McPhee, Assembling California

“lithology”
― John McPhee, Assembling California