Cousteau Quotes & Sayings

Clean water, the essence of life and a birthright for everyone, must become available to all people now. — Jean-Michel Cousteau

No matter how remote we feel we are from the oceans, every act each one of us takes in our everyday lives affects our planet's water cycle and in return affects us. — Fabien Cousteau

No sooner does man discover intelligence than he tries to involve it in his own stupidity. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Here I go, deep type flow,
Jacques Cousteau could never get this low. — Ol' Dirty Bastard

If having a beautiful lawn means putting up warning signs several times a year to keep children and pets off of it, it's probably a good idea to look into alternatives. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

The fundamental essence of science, which I think we've lost in our education system, is poking something with a stick and seeing what happens. Embrace that process of inquiry. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

How dangerous are those sea animals with bad reputations? A few actually kill. A few maim. Some are poisonous when eaten by man. Most sting, stab,or poison and cause mild to severe discomfort to man. Yet man is one of the larger beings that sea creatures encounter, and these poisons usually can't kill him. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

I am not a scientist. I am, rather, an impresario of scientists. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

In many ways, our homes act as one big drain that, through our daily relationship with water, carries many toxic substances into our waterways and the environment. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Under water, man becomes an archangel. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Without water, our planet would be one of the billions of lifeless rocks floating endlessly in the vastness of the inky-black void. — Fabien Cousteau

My father's plan was, we were going to grow up and travel the world. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Don't eat shrimp - it's one of the most unsustainable fish. For every pound that's caught, 10 or 20 pounds of other stuff is killed and dumped back overboard. It's the number one killer of juvenile sea turtles in Mexico. Two good sustainable seafood guides that I'd recommend are from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Blue Ocean Institute. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

One of my big pet peeves is single-use plastic bags. I think it's one of the stupidest ideas in the world. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

There's this terrific kid in Maine who saw all the waste generated by straws handed out in restaurants. So he made up these little pop-up cards and asked restaurant owners put them on the tables to explain why straws wouldn't be handed out unless requested. Of course, the restaurant owners couldn't resist a 9-year-old kid, and so it worked. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Ocean acidification is often referred to as osteoporosis of the oceans because as acidity rises, shell building creatures such as lobster, oyster, crab, shrimp, and coral are unable to extract the calcium carbonate from the water that they need to build their shells and are thus unable to survive. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

For those who don't live in a place where water is readily available, it's something you carry on your back for six kilometers, that makes your children sick, that is perhaps the hardest part of your existence. — Alexandra Cousteau

He's not lying. I can assure you, he's part fish. Jacques Cousteau has nothing on him. Aquaman, either. (Solin) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

The great news is that overwhelmingly far more than adults, youth already care about the environment. Young people are recognizing that we have largely made a mess of things with respect to the environment [and] that the burden to fix it will fall on them. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

In order to save the planet it would be necessary to kill 350,000 people per day. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

I'll never be able to fill my father's or grandfather's shoes, but hopefully I can stand on their shoulders and reach farther. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

The sea is not a bargain basement. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 per day. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

The fact of the matter is our homes are on the frontlines when it comes to protecting and conserving our critical water resources - more than that, they are also key to protecting our health. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

The Jacques Cousteau shows actually got me very excited about the fact that there's an alien world here on Earth. — James Cameron

I've been on my grandfather's boat, Calypso, twice in my life. My mother raised me in a pretty typical middle-class life. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Our oceans cover two-thirds of what my grandfather called our water planet, and the part of the ocean that falls under the jurisdiction of the United States covers an area larger than the country itself. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

The earliest memories I have of the ocean are actually stories - stories from my grandfather, the legendary ocean explorer and conservationist Jacques Cousteau. My passion for ocean conservation stems from learning at a very young age that we're all connected; we're all in this together. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

My grandfather was Jacques Cousteau, a pioneer of ocean exploration and the co-inventor of scuba diving. Back in the 1940s when he tested out his invention which allowed humans to swim freely in the ocean with a portable air source for the first time in history, very little of the ocean had been explored let alone captured on film. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

When we return wild animals to nature, we merely return them to what is already theirs. For man cannot give wild animals freedom, they can only take it away. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

The future is in the hands of those who explore ... and from all the beauty they discover while crossing perpetually receding frontiers, they develop for nature and for humankind an infinite love. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Young people have, truly, the potential to change the world. Not when they get older - today. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

I travel all over the country speaking to young people, and I am always amazed at how engaged in environmental conservation they are. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

The road to the future leads us smack into the wall. We simply ricochet off the alternatives that destiny offers. Our survival is no more than a question of 25, 50 or perhaps 100 years. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

When you talk to a Republican, many of them just outright say, 'Yeah. Climate change isn't real,' without assessing the facts, and it's a big problem. It's not a red or blue issue, it's a green issue ... Not because of facts or science but because of emotion. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

They say that our sense of smell is one of the strongest triggers of memories. Of course, our sense of smell is integral to our sense of taste, so it is no surprise, then, that in a life full of moving and traveling, food has always been a source of familiar comfort for me. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

As our technology evolves, we will have the capacity to reach new, ever-increasing depths. The question is what kind of technology, in the end, do we want to deploy in the far reaches of the ocean? Tools of science, ecology and documentation, or the destructive tools of heavy industry? — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

We know how to organize warfare, but do we know how to act when confronted with peace? — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

I have spent many years working in education and media, from hosting documentaries to being a spokesperson for Discovery Education to revolutionizing youth environmental service through my non-profit, EarthEcho International. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Through the window of my mask I see a wall of coral, its surface a living kaleidoscope of lilac flecks, splashes of gold, reddish streaks and yellows, all tinged by the familiar transparent blue of the sea. — 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

Our society is turning toward more and more needless consumption. It is a vicious circle that I compare to cancer ... Should we eliminate suffering, diseases? The idea is beautiful, but perhaps not a benefit for the long term. We should not allow our dread of diseases to endanger the future of our species ... In order to stabilize world population, we need to eliminate 350,000 people a day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it's just as bad not to say it. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

With earth's burgeoning human population to feed we must turn to the sea with understanding and new technology. We need to farm it as we farm the land. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

We must go and see for ourselves. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

See, I've always seen Jacques Cousteau as a hero, mate. He's a legend - like my dad, just a legend. And so what he did for conservation in the '60s through the '70s was just phenomenal. — Steve Irwin

Population growth is the primary source of environmental damage. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

The reason I love the sea I cannot explain - it's physical. When you dive you begin to feel like an angel. It's a liberation of your weight. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

If a product has an endless list of ingredients, and you can't pronounce half of them, I would think twice about bringing them into your home. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

To me the foundation of all life is in the ocean. — Jean-Michel Cousteau

There was wildlife, untouched, a jungle at the border of the sea, never seen by those who floated on the opaque roof. Describing his early experience, in 1936, when a fellow naval officer, Philippe Tailliez, gave him goggles to see below the Mediterranean Sea surface. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Perhaps the time has come to formulate a moral code which would govern our relations with the great creatures of the sea as well as with those on dry land. That this will come to pass is my dear wish. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

The idea of a group of elders is that, in past civilizations, they have linked worlds; the other world was also present in this one. There is also the argument that elders have "experience." The problem is that experience teaches fear of change. Experience kills imagination. Experience makes people conservative. What we are facing tomorrow requires the force of imagination, not wisdom from yesterday. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

I've been a grant seeker all my life, but when I apply for one and get it, that means someone else doesn't. I didn't want to be a part of that anymore. I wanted to contribute to that pool and make it bigger. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

People protect what they love. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

I went to elementary school in L.A. I was born in L.A. My mother was from Redondo Beach. My father was French. He died six months before I was born, so my mother went home. I was born there. Not the childhood that most people think. Middle-class, raised by my mother. Single mom. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

EarthEcho Expeditions represents the culmination of more than a decade of working with educators and youth from around the world. EarthEcho Expeditions uses the thrill of adventure to inspire and empower a new generation of environmental champions. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Some parts of our oceans, like the rich and mysterious recesses of our Atlantic submarine canyons and seamounts, are so stunning and sensitive they deserve to be protected from destructive activities. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

I believe that the only true agents of change on a large scale, in this country or anywhere, are young people. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Ocean acidification is caused by the ocean absorbing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the same carbon dioxide that is the primary cause of global warming, hence the nickname 'the other carbon problem.' As they do so, the oceans become more acidic with terrible consequences. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

The Sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

A common denominator in every single nuclear accident - a nuclear plant or on a nuclear submarine - is that before the specialists even know what has happened, they rush to the media saying, 'There's no danger to the public.' They do this before they themselves know what has happened because they are terrified that the public might react violently, either by panic or by revolt. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

It's terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn't even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

As a boy I dreamed that I could go on a boat with Jean Cousteau. But I was never given the opportunity. I am now giving that opportunity to young people around the world who would like to experience the beauty of nature. — Mike Horn

It is fashionable nowadays to talk about the endless riches of the sea. The ocean is regarded as a sort of bargain basement, but I don't agree with that estimate. People don't realize that water in the liquid state is very rare in the universe. Away from earth it is usually a gas. This moisture is a blessed treasure, and it is our basic duty, if we don't want to commit suicide, to preserve 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

Jacques Cousteau, the last man to see Jimmy Hoffa. Never got a dinner! — Red Buttons

The world cannot live without the Arctic; it affects every living thing on Earth and acts as a virtual thermostat, reflecting sunlight and cooling the planet. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

We need a new global culture that finds the existence of millions of thirsty people thoroughly and immediately unacceptable. — Jean-Michel Cousteau

Water is the ink that writes the poetry of life. — Alexandra Cousteau

The biggest organ in your body is your skin, and it's a permeable membrane. Anything you put on it goes into you. If you can't pronounce most of the words on the back of the bottle, it's probably not good for you. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

I love snowboarding. It's probably my favorite sport. I love sitting on top of the mountain and the snow falling and that silence, that snow silence. That's, like, a very peaceful, happy place for me. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Farming as we do it is hunting, and in the sea we act like barbarians. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Like my father and grandfather, Philippe and Jacques-Yves Cousteau, I've dedicated my life to exploring and protecting our seas, in large part through documentary film. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Targeting women is key in developing countries. It allows them to go to school, to say how many children they're going to have, which drives the issue of population and how their children will be educated. Women are the best investments in developing countries. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

My greatest hope for a future without another Deepwater Horizon disaster lies in our schools, living rooms and community centers, not in boardrooms, political chambers and big industry. If this happens again, we won't have the luxury of the unknown to shield us from answering 'Why?' — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Since oceans are the life support system of our planet, regulating the climate, providing most of our oxygen and feeding over a billion people, what's bad for oceans is bad for us - very bad. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Mission 31 pays homage to my grandfather's work and all aquanauts who have since followed his lead in the name of ocean exploration. — Fabien Cousteau

It is certain that the study of human psychology, if it were undertaken exclusively in prisons, would also lead to misrepresentation and absurd generalizations. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

I wake up saying, I'm still alive; a miracle. And so I keep on pushing. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Fossil fuels and mining is a short-term gambit. If we develop those resources at the expense of the environmental gold mine that is the Great Barrier Reef, we will all lose in the long run. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Man, of all the animals, is probably the only one to regard himself as a great delicacy. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Helping people understand the impact of key environmental and human issues worldwide is something that I'm passionate about. CNN's 'Going Green' series of specials are engaging viewers around the world through important messages of conservation and hope. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

The sea is the universal sewer. — 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

And let us remember too that life, in its exuberance, always succeeds in overflowing the narrow limits within which man thinks he can confine it. — 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

Let's face it. Adventure and exploration are in my blood. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Mankind has probably done more damage to the Earth in the 20th century than in all of previous human history. — 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

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

Without ethics, everything happens as if we were all five billion passengers on a big machinery and nobody is driving the machinery. And it's going faster and faster, but we don't know where. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

I swam across the rocks and compared myself favorably with the sars. To swim fishlike, horizontally, was the logical method in a medium eight hundred times denser than air. To halt and hang attached to nothing, no lines or air pipe to the surface, was a dream. At night I had often had visions of flying by extending my arms as wings. Now I flew without wings. (Since that first aqualung flight, I have never had a dream of flying.) — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

There are no boundaries in the real Planet Earth. No United States, no Soviet Union, no China, no Taiwan ... Rivers flow unimpeded across the swaths of continents. The persistent tides - the pulse of the sea - do not discriminate; they push against all the varied shores on Earth. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

We are living in an interminable succession of absurdities imposed by the myopic logic of short-term thinking. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Despite their lack of visual impact, headline sex-appeal, and their 'out of sight, out of mind' nature, we should all care about aquatic dead zones because we are all connected to their causes and we all feel their impacts. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

We've explored very little of the ocean. We really don't know what's out there. But people think we've figured it all out. — Philippe Cousteau Jr.

The biggest obstacle was mixing abortion with overpopulation. These are two things that have nothing to do with each other. — Jacques-Yves Cousteau