Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

"Though it might be nice to imagine there once was a time when man lived in harmony with nature, it's not clear that he ever really did."

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

"In what seems like a fantastic coincidence, but is probably no coincidence at all, the history of these events is recovered just as people come to realize that they are causing another one."

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

"Amphibians—the word comes from the Greek meaning ‘double life."

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

"According to Lamarck, there was a force—the ‘power of life’—that pushed organisms to become increasingly complex."

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

"His interest, after all, was not in the origin of species but in their demise."

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

"Somewhere in our DNA must lie the key mutation (or, more probably, mutations) that set us apart—the mutations that make us the sort of creature that could wipe out its nearest relative, then dig up its bones and reassemble its genome."

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

"The 'incredible frog hotel'—really a local bed and breakfast—...the frogs stay (in their tanks) in a block of rented rooms."

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History