Poor France, thy fine climate, rich vineyards, and the wishes of the learned avail nothing; thou art a destitute beggar, and not the powerful friend thou wert represented to me.

To be a good draftsman was to me a blessing.

A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.

Hunting, fishing, drawing, and music occupied my every moment. Cares I knew not, and cared naught about them.

When the bird and the book disagree, believe the bird.

But hopes are shy birds flying at a great distance, seldom reached by the best of guns.

I can scarcely manage to scribble a tolerable English letter. I know that I am not a scholar, but meantime I am aware that no man living knows better than I do the habits of our birds.

One day I caught four Dolphins, how much I have gazed at these beautiful creatures... as they changed their hue in twenty varieties of richest arrangement of tints.

Never give up listening to the sounds of birds.

In my deepest troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests.

During all these years there existed within me a tendency to follow Nature in her walks.

You know I'm not a man with whom you can have inconsequential conversations. I cannot split myself into two, one your friend and the other the king's servant.

We frequently applaud failure in theory, but the dirty little secret is that it makes all of us feel at least a little ashamed.

When we care, we share.

One of the basic steps in saving a threatened species is to learn more about it: its diet, its mating and reproductive processes, its range patterns, its social behavior.

Do not trust your memory it is a net full of holes the most beautiful prizes slip through it.

I've learned that under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

Don't tell people you care about them when all you really care about is getting your own way.

I tried to keep it secret, but the story got into the newspapers. It was more difficult for my family, who couldn't understand why the media wouldn't leave me in peace.

I'm very classic and structural. I love clean lines and interesting, modern details. But I'm all about being streamlined - less is more.

I'm a history person, and I love the groundedness of that, of being able to go, "Yes! People acted like that."