Wade Davis

"Cultural survival is not about preservation, sequestering indigenous peoples in enclaves like some sort of zoological specimens. Change itself does note destroy a culture. All societies are constantly evolving. Indeed a culture survives when it has enough confidence in its past and enough say in its future to maintain its spirit and essence through all the changes it will inevitably undergo."

"In the West we cling to the past like limpets. In Haiti the present is the axis of all life. As in Africa, past and future are but distant measures of the present, and memories are as meaningless as promises."

"You know, once something freezes, it's solid. That's the key to the arctic - they didn't fear the cold, they made use of it."

"All cultures through all time have constantly been engaged in a dance with new possibilities for life. Change is the one constant in human history."

"The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being YOU: they are unique manifestations of the human spirit."

"The measure of a society is not only what it does but the quality of its aspirations."