The construction of an airplane is simple compared with the evolutionary achievement of a bird. If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the complexity of nature as exemplified by birds, compared to human-made inventions like airplanes.
Charles Lindbergh emphasizes the incredible evolutionary development of birds, suggesting that despite our technological advancements in creating airplanes, they pale in comparison to the natural marvel that is a bird. He expresses a preference for the beauty and sophistication of nature over man-made creations.
In practice
During a nature conference, one might quote this to highlight the importance of preserving wildlife.
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.
What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
Konstantin Levin did not like talking and hearing about the beauty of nature. Words for him took away the beauty of what he saw.
Today we're seeing that climate change is about more than a few unseasonably mild winters or hot summers. It's about the chain of natural catastrophes and devastating weather patterns that global warming is beginning to set off around the world.. the frequency and intensity of which are breaking records thousands of years old.
Nature, with equal mind, Sees all her sons at play, Sees man control the wind, The wind sweep man away.
To follow the drops sliding from a lifting oar, Head up, while the rower breathes, and the small boat drifts quietly shoreward.
The truth is, as most of us know, that global warming is real and humans are major contributors, mainly because we wastefully burn fossil fuels.
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