“What if all ponds were shallow? Would it not react on the minds of men? I  am thankful that this pond was made deep and pure for a symbol. While men believe in the infinite some ponds will be thought to be bottomless” (Thoreau, 310)

“The idea that beavers could become a scourge didn’t arise, and the potential seriousness of conflicts between people and beavers were largely unforeseen. Remember, beavers were gone from the landscape before colonists settled it. Europeans and beavers never lived together. Settlers found lush beaver-engineered lowlands but no beavers. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there was no reason to think about beavers either but every reason to think about building the nation’s infrastructure efficiently and cost-effectively” (Sterba, 74)