Bernd Heinrich Quotes & Sayings

Consciousness is not a thing. It is a continuum without boundaries. We can most readily see its presence or absence in the extremes. In mussels, and in men. Is one of those extremes for birds found in ravens? Is it of sufficient magnitude for us to detect with our feeble detectors, our minds? — Bernd Heinrich

The essential thing is to run period!
And to do it for a long time and consistently and then everything will take care of itself. — Bernd Heinrich

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of resurrection. - ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, German philosopher — Bernd Heinrich

Movement is the essence of life. — Bernd Heinrich

Conditions are seldom ideal, and if one waits long enough for ideal conditions one is just making excuses. — Bernd Heinrich

In order to forge alliances, we first need worthy adversaries. Without adversaries, no alliances are necessary. — Bernd Heinrich

The very idea of "managing" a forest in the first place is oxymoronic, because a forest is an ecosystem that is by definition self-managing. — Bernd Heinrich

Planting nuts requires a vision for a future that goes beyond one's mortal reach. If we envision ourselves as participants in the same grand, complex web of interactions as the forest, then planting acorns is like planting part of ourselves. The morality that comes from such a vision of ecosystem-as-life is a common thread that, if taught and encouraged, could unite all of mankind. — Bernd Heinrich

Deep down we are all still runners — Bernd Heinrich

I retained little from the textbooks, learning instead from what I lived and the things I touched that held emotional content for me. — Bernd Heinrich

Give a man the secure possession of bleak rocks," Arthur Young said in Travels in 1787, "and he will turn it into a garden; give him nine years of lease of a garden, and he will convert it to a desert ... — Bernd Heinrich

There is beauty not only in that things work, but how they work. — Bernd Heinrich

Running is perhaps the most fundamental of all sports, and it is economically the least costly to perform. As a consequence, it is the most democratic and most competitive of all sports because individual merit can prevail despite economic equality. It is a sport for everyone, the whole world over. — Bernd Heinrich

Spraying to kill trees and and raspberry bushes after a clear-cut merely looks unaesthetic for a short time, but tree plantations are deliberate ecodeath. Yet, tree planting is often pictorially advertised on television and in national magazines by focusing on cupped caring hands around a seedling. But forests do not need this godlike interference ... Planting tree plantations is permanent deforestation ... The extensive planting of just one exotic species removes thousands of native species. — Bernd Heinrich

THE FOLLOWING LATE April I found a dead bull moose about two kilometers from the site where I had left the doe. A bull moose probably weighs ten times as much as a white-tailed doe. This one looked emaciated; it had apparently died from complications of moose tick disease, a common — Bernd Heinrich

We gauge what we think is possible by what we know from experience, and our acceptance of scientific insights, in particular, is incremental, gained one experience at a time. — Bernd Heinrich

he jumped in under the running water, squeaked as if in ecstasy, bent his legs to get deeper, and whirred his wings like an egg beater in high gear. The spray flew several meters, soaking the floor and counters near the sink. Then he jumped out dripping wet and fluttered back into the cage to shake vigorously and preen until dry. — Bernd Heinrich

For those that endure until spring, existence is reduced to its elegant essentials. — Bernd Heinrich

There is nothing quite so gentle, deep, and irrational as running
and nothing quite so savage, so wild. — Bernd Heinrich

We deny that we are part of the feast and seek to remove ourselves from it, even though we kill and consume animals by the billions and permanently remove the life resources for many more. But not one animal is allowed to consume us, even after we are dead. Not even the worms. We need a new creation story that connects us to nature and to others, one that can give us strength-- that can make us real rather than rich. Nature, religions, and science coincide on the real: kinship with each other and with the mountains and prairies, oceans and forests. — Bernd Heinrich

Barry L. Jacobs and colleagues from the neuroscience program at Princeton University showed that when mice ran every day on an exercise wheel, they developed more brain cells and they learned faster than sedentary controls. I believe in mice. — Bernd Heinrich

One of the beautiful things about running is that it is direct and elegant. The formula is simple: put one foot in front of the other. It doesn't take much to figure out that if you want to improve sprint speed, you run faster. If you want to improve distance-running performance, you run farther. — Bernd Heinrich

Somewhere there is a check on their natural rate of increase, and you can be sure of one thing - that if they could tell us what they wanted at any one time, they would vote to obliterate the forces that hold them in check, the forces that ensure their long-term benefits. And so, probably, would we, if we voted merely on the basis of our individual interests. — Bernd Heinrich

The newspaper, delivered daily to my mailbox, is a convenience I need to help start my fire in the morning. Not wanting to waste anything, I sometimes even read it. — Bernd Heinrich

I try not to be a sucker to our natural tendency to seek pleasure and satisfaction, which causes us to believe almost anything that makes us feel better and then deem it "right." But I cannot exclude the possibility that there may be other dimensions to the world aside from the familiar ones and that something lives on beyond my physical self. If so, when I pass on, it will be a celebration for some other beginning and not an end. Even if that is not the case, I have lost nothing and gained much. — Bernd Heinrich

The job has not been done to Admiral Hyman Rickover's specifications. He admonished, "Nature is not as forgiving as Christ. — Bernd Heinrich

We are social animals. We like to feel a part of something of beauty and power that transcends our insignificance. It can be a religion, a political party, a ball club. Why not also Nature? I feel a strong identity with the world of living things. I was born into it; we all were. But we may not feel the ties unless we gain intimacy by seeing, feeling, smelling, touching and studying the natural world. Trying to live in harmony with the dictates of nature is probably as inspirational as living in harmony with the Koran or the Bible. Perhaps it is also a timely undertaking. — Bernd Heinrich

Edward Abbey said you must "brew your own beer; kick in you Tee Vee; kill your own beef; build your cabin and piss off the front porch whenever you bloody well feel like it." I already had a good start. As a teenager in rural Maine, after we came to America, I had learned hunting, fishing, and trapping in the wilderness. My Maine mentors had long ago taught me to make home brew. I owned a rifle, and I'd already built a log cabin. The rest should be easy. I thought I'd give it a shot. — Bernd Heinrich

Each of the 630 pupae killed by Gambrus hatched not just one wasp but, on average, thirty-three. That is, these pupae represent 630 x 33 = 20,790 individual ichneumon parasitoids, which could potentially produce 20,790 x 33 = 686,000 more parasitoids in the next generation, and this wasp can have more than one generation in a year. One — Bernd Heinrich

ROA, KONRAD LORENZ'S RAVEN, raided clotheslines to steal ladies' underwear. Roa had been exploring a neighbor's laundry hung on the line just when he was called. He came, taking a small transportable item with him, a pair of panties. When he got a reward of tasty food, he made the association of panties and food. Henceforth, as expected according to classical conditioning theory, he brought these items on his own to redeem them for savory snacks. — Bernd Heinrich

I do not yet want to form a hypothesis to test, because as soon as you make a hypothesis, you become prejudiced. Your mind slides into a groove, and once it is in that groove, has difficulty noticing anything outside of it. During this time, my sense must be sharp; that is the main thing - to be sharp, yet open. — Bernd Heinrich

By providing safe nesting sites, woodpeckers are thus keystone organisms for a vast assemblage of birds the world over, including many owls, parrots, parids, flycatchers. — Bernd Heinrich