Coman, Dale Rex
Dale Coman is a research physician at the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a wildlife columnist for the Philadelphia Bulletin. He was also the author of Pleasant River and numerous articles on wildlife and conservation.
My beloved planet has reminded me of my lowly and inconsequential place in her affairs, and I have no answer fit to offer, no excuses to give, no apologies I know how to phrase. The Endless Adventure, 1972.Nature is neither harsh nor cruel nor sentimentally sweet and kind. Ibid.
It does not take long to realize that, instead of clocks, the tides beat out the measure of the marsh and shore, and that all you see, plant and animal, must adapt to the periodic changes of water level. Ibid.
It takes some living to discover that the living itself is one's life, that life is not a goal to attain but a possession to relish. Ibid.
You cannot see much of the world around you with your nose pressed against a grindstone, and no toil can be called honest if it steals your life away. Ibid.
Thoughts are timid things. They are frightened away by noise and they make none themselves. They flutter as silently as do owls on soft-edged wings. Ibid.
The rule is that no species prevails for long as measured in the units of eras by which our planet conducts its affairs. Ibid.
Observations of wild things in their natural habitats are as often inadvertent as planned. You may be in search of one thing only to discover another instead. Ibid.
The fox and deer, the birds and I would wander through winter as we wandered through spring, summer and fall&endash;looking, listening, sniffing, prying and beguiled with this glorious planet. Ibid.
A planet has no need to rush in the conduct of its affairs; its major schemes are plotted on a chart of eons. Ibid.