Since the beginning each generation has fought nature. Now, in the life-span of a single
generation, we must turn around 180 degrees and become the protector of nature.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we
will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
All life is part of a complex relationship in which each is dependent upon the others, taking
from, giving to and living with all the rest.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage
cans.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has
no right to keep it to himself.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That
is what civilization is all about – farming replacing hunting.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Sometime we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed, to discard the old,
embrace the new, and run headlong down an immutable course.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
No aquarium, no tank in a marine land, however spacious it may be, can begin to duplicate
the conditions of the sea. And no dolphin who inhabits one of those aquariums or one of
those marine lands can be considered normal.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
A lot of people attack the sea, I make love to it.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Mankind has probably done more damage to the Earth in the 20th century than in all of
previous human history.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to
realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
It takes generosity to discover the whole through others. If you realize you are only a violin,
you can open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The impossible missions are the only ones which succeed.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The real cure for our environmental problems is to understand that our job is to salvage Mother
Nature. We are facing a formidable enemy in this field. It is the hunters – and to convince them
to leave their guns on the wall is going to be very difficult.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau
If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are
human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work.
– Jacques-Yves Cousteau