We need another, and a wiser, and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.

Henry Beston (1888-1968) Naturalist and
author of The Outermost House

“I think in all of my professional work, all of the prayers, that is my life is devoted to trying to gain again that wiser, more mystical concept of animals. And by getting to know them, the animals are teaching me their wisdom that I can share with readers who often recognize it, in an instant, as truth.”

Sy Montgomery is a naturalist and author of many books
about her encounters with wild animals
including The Soul of an Octopus