The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, And The Natural History Heist Of The Century Quotes
"The residents of the sleepy town had finished their suppers; the little ones were in bed."
"He bore a passing resemblance to a lanky Pete Townshend: intense eyes, prominent nose, and a mop of hair."
"There was a new moon that evening, making the already-gloomy stretch of road even darker."
"If this is not done, future ages will certainly look back upon us as a people so immersed in the pursuit of wealth as to be blind to higher considerations."
"The most beautiful and varied forms of animals and vegetable existence; where Peruvian gold has tempted, and Amazonian women have repulsed, the unprincipled adventurer."
"In his early twenties, after reading Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle, Wallace began to dream of an expedition of his own."
"All my originality, whatever it may amount to, will be smashed."
"The arrival of the automobile meant that women could no longer wear large hats brimming with feathers in the cab of the car."
"A salmon fly, by vivid contrast, is made not to resemble anything in nature but to provoke."
"Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration."
"By the end of the nineteenth century, there was 'very little water left in Britain which wasn’t firmly controlled either by landlords or clubs.'"
"To dress one fly, Schmookler will use up to 150 different materials, ranging from polar bear and mink fur to the feathers of wild turkeys, golden and Reeves pheasants, the African speckled bustard and the Brazilian blue chatterer."
"Exactitude is needed in applying our principles," Kelson wrote, stressing the importance of factors like color shades and water clarity.
"For Kelson, fly-tying had a kinship with the fine arts—he claimed the practice would instill a 'mental and moral discipline' in his disciples."
"Edwin understood that his potential in the flute would be limited only by his ability to focus."
"In a fever of excitement the King of Fish will exercise his royal jaw upon a thing it were an outrage to call a Salmon fly."
"I’ve met this ‘Something.’ I’m haunted by it constantly now," wrote Guidry, referring to the power of rare feathers.
"Edwin had a habit of diving into things, so he raced down to the basement in search of materials."
"The materials I use are not from animals on the endangered species list, or were collected before the Endangered Species Act was passed," said Schmookler.
"He was given a key card to the back offices and was taught about the procedures for handling the museum’s collection."
"Even at a young age, perhaps as a result of the unstructured nature of homeschooling, Edwin understood that his potential in the flute would be limited only by his ability to focus."
"I prefer to do things the same way over and over again."
"I live life for today rather than the future."
"When I talk on the phone, I’m not sure when it’s my turn to speak."
"I would never break a law, no matter how minor."
"The United Kingdom doesn’t spend millions of pounds on the Natural History Museum so the stuff isn’t used."
"They think any discrepancy in the numbers is due to poor record keeping."
"As the police officer, you do your bit, then the next bit is down to Crown Prosecution. All the negotiations between barristers and stuff, I’m not necessarily involved in."
"However, if I had Asperger’s, I’d be really cross that someone’s saying because they’ve got it, they’re a criminal."
"It’s no more or less wrong than someone walking into a shop and stealing a pair of trousers."
"People don’t actually fish with this shit, right?!"
"I think that, technically speaking, had the museum just put all those things up for sale, you would have nullified fifty Indian Crows’ worth of demand."
"I try to refrain from certain words. Thief is one of them. I don’t feel like a thief."
"The other one was Ohhh autistic people, they sort of have tics."
"Your responsibility is to align your world with God’s world."
"Had I taken two of each, I doubt they ever would have noticed."
"It sure seemed as though greed were winning."
"That there was an allure in what people knew to be taboo."
"It’s really hard to convince people to quit using exotics!"
"There was a listing for a full Blue Chatterer."
"Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it."
"What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it."
"The only regret I will have in dying is if it is not for love."
"No matter what, nobody can take away the dances you've already had."
"Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability."
"Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but... life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves."
"Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good."
"Age isn't how old you are but how old you feel."
"The future is always unknown, but we can shape it with our actions today."
"Memories, like feathers, are delicate and easily lost to the winds of time."
"In every challenge, lies an opportunity to learn and grow."
"Our deepest fears often hold the key to our greatest breakthroughs."
"The heart has its reasons, which reason knows not of."
"True courage is not the absence of fear, but the strength to face it."
"In the tapestry of life, every thread counts."
"Dreams are the seeds of change. Nurture them and watch them bloom."
"The most profound discoveries often lie hidden in plain sight."