From the lies and threats, rumors and half-truths, revelations and frustrations, I came to understand something about the devilish relationship between man and nature and his unrelenting desire to lay claim to its beauty, whatever the cost.
-- Kirk Wallace Johnson (Prologue)

Importance: This quote in the author himself highlighting some of the book's themes in the prologue, thus preparing the reader for the big questions they will ruminate on together as the book progresses. For the author, some of the central themes of his work is humanity's responsibility to nature, as indicated and expressed through their relationship, as well as the consequences of the obsessive need to possess beauty which drives one to fulfill one's own greed at the expense of greater costs, in this case, costs to science and collective knowledge.

Should civilized man ever reach these distant lands ... we may be sure that he will so disturb the nicely-balanced relations of organic and...
-- Alfred Russel Wallace (chapter 1)