Lying under an acacia tree with the sound of the dawn around me, I realized more clearly the facts that man should never overlook: that the construction of an airplane, for instance, is simple when compared [with] a bird; that airplanes depend on an advanced civilization, and that were civilization is most advanced, few birds exist. I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the simplicity of nature compared to human creations, emphasizing a preference for the natural world over technological advancements.
In this quote, Charles Lindbergh contemplates the juxtaposition of natural creatures, particularly birds, with human inventions like airplanes. He emphasizes that despite the complexity involved in creating an airplane, it pales in comparison to the wonders of nature, suggesting a deep appreciation for the simplicity and beauty of wildlife. Through this realization, Lindbergh asserts the value of nature in contrast to the advancements of civilization, ultimately favoring the existence of birds over human-made machines.
In practice
During a speech about environmental conservation, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of appreciating nature over technology.
How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life?
In wilderness I sense the miracle of life.
Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life?
In honoring the Wright Brothers, it is customary and proper to recognize their contribution to scientific progress. But I believe it is equally important to emphasize the qualities in their pioneering life and the character in man that such a life produced. The Wright Brothers balanced sucess with modesty, science with simplicity. At Kitty Hawk their intellects and senses worked in mutual support. They represented man in balance, and from that balance came wings to lift a world.
We are in the grip of a scientific materialism, caught in a vicious cycle where our security today seems to depend on regimentation and weapons which will ruin us tomorrow.
We are in grave danger of losing forever not just millions of years of evolution on earth, but the eons of change that have produced man and his natural environment.
Many...have learned that the magnitude of lives is not as to their external displacements, but as to their subjective experiences. The impressionable peasant leads a larger, fuller, more dramatic life than the pachydermatous king.
I suppose everyone continues to be interested in the quest for the self, but what you feel when you're older, I think, is that ... you really must make the self. It is absolutely useless to look for it, you won't find it, but it's possible in some sense to make it. I don't mean in the sense of making a mask, a Yeatsian mask. But you finally begin in some sense to make and choose the self you want.
Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.
We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.
Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community.
'Melancholy' is prettier than 'depression'; it connotes a kind of nocturnal grace. Makes one feel more innocently beleaguered.
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