Extinction Quotations

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Let's not be too quick to blame the human race for everything. We must remember that a great many species of animals became extinct before man ever appeared on earth. At the same time it is probably true that when two husky representatives of Homo sapiens, with clubs, corner the last two birds of a species, no matter how far they have or have not evolved, both the phylogeny and the ontogeny of those birds are, to all intents and purposes, over. -- Will Cuppy, How to Become Extinct, 1941

The Dodo never had a chance. He seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of becoming extinct and that was all he was good for. -- id.

Becoming extinct has its compensations. It's a good deal like beating the game. I would go so far as to say that becoming extinct is the perfect answer to everything and I defy anybody to think of a better. Other solutions are mere palliatives, just a bunch of loose ends, leaving the central problem untouched. --id.

"EXTINCTION: The end of the line for creatures that cannot or will not adapt to an increasingly hostile environment, which is why the future belongs to cockroaches and MBAs." -- Rick Bayan, The Cynic's Dictionary

Since after extinction no one will be present to take responsibility, we have to take full responsibility now. -- Jonathan Schell, The Fate of the Earth, 1982, ISBN 0-39452-559-0

The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living beings breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again. -- William Beebe, The Bird, 1906

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