Ancient Chinese Wisdom

"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."

- Chinese Proverb

The Wisdom of Rene Dahinden

"Something is making those damned tracks."

- Rene Dahinden

Enough said.

The Wisdom of John Dewey

"Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination."

- John Dewey

Robert M. Pyle, PhD on the Sasquatch

I am having trouble finding the time necessary to write any in depth posts (basketball season) so I have been posting some quotes that I like or feel are relevant to the cryptozoological field. I should have a "real" post up soon but, in the meantime, enjoy this quote from Robert M. Pyle, Phd in regards to the possible existence of the sasquatch or wood ape.

“There is no prevailing model of anthropology and zoology, I would suggest, that eliminates the possibility, let alone the likelihood, of bigfoot. Not on an evolutionary ground, not on a bio-geographical ground, not on an ecological ground, not on a metabolic ground. The only thing that keeps scientists, I think, from putting their necks out and saying this is something worth our looking into is their own fear of ridicule.”

- Robert M. Pyle, PhD

For Your Consideration...

I thought I would share a couple of my favorite quotes with you. Both of these quotes were made by noted researchers of cryptozoological phenomenon concerning their particular areas of interest; however, I have always felt these quotes were applicable in a much broader sense. Current events have only strengthened that sentiment. I present them for your consideration below.

“Most of us dislike having to change our opinions. So, while facts are facts, objectionable ones are often deliberately misinterpreted."

- Ivan T. Sanderson

“Everyone has a right to their own opinion, but no one has a right to be wrong about the facts. Without the facts, your opinion is of no value.”

- Rene Dahinden

The Wisdom of George Gill, PhD

I can't add much to this. I will say only that it makes a lot of sense to me.

The Big Thicket is a Weird Place

Here is an interesting account from noted author, teacher and philosopher A.Y. Gunter. It just goes to show that the Big Thicket has always been a unique place. Stories of wild men, remnant bands of Karankawas, wood apes, black panthers, ghost lights and Ol' Mossyback continue to come out of this region. The area is truly a Texas treasure.

"The two-legged hairless ape should be mentioned in any Big Thicket inventory. Of this species, the most spectacular are those which hide in the deep woods seeking sanctuary from the outer world. The most famous of these is the Nude Man of the Big Thicket, who lived there in the 1950s. Several people had glimpsed the man. Then one fine day a Mr. Sutton encountered him on a lonely road. The hermit announced that if anyone wanted to come in after him they would have to come in shooting. He was a large man, deeply tanned and hairy, with a long beard. He had a gun in each hand, and was naked. So far as is known, no one "went in after him" though there are stories of the subsequent capture of an escaped mental patient who had lived for nine years in the Thicket on wild fruits and armadillo. Whether the two hermits are one and the same is ---- well, as usual, the facts get a little vague on that point."


- A.Y. Gunter

A Word From Brian Brown

“I think that the fear and the ‘giant monster’ thing comes from a lack of understanding and knowledge… I’ve been down there enough (Area X) that I understand they’re wild animals. And I understand wild animals need to be respected at all times because they’re unpredictable and they do strange things, and a deer can kill you, right? I understand that. But, they’re just animals. They’re not monsters. They’re not malevolent. They’re not evil… If you really want to be investigating them, if you want to try to get to the bottom of what this animal is and you want to do what I would consider science, you have to try to let go of that stuff. You have to move past it. Appreciate, respect them as wild animals.”

- Brian Brown (NAWAC Board Member) discussing wood apes with Seth Breedlove on the SasWhat podcast

The Wisdom of Henry David Thoreau

"It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see.”

- Henry David Thoreau

"A tiger does not lose sleep over the opinions of sheep."

- Shahir Zag

The Wisdom of John Burroughs

“For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice”

- John Burroughs

The Wisdom of Walt Disney

“The difference between winning and losing is most often… not quitting.”

- Walt Disney

The Wisdom of Carl Sagan

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

- Carl Sagan

Daniel Falconer on Melba Ketchum

"I honestly get the impression Melba thinks she’s fighting the good fight. I don’t think, as some do, that she is trying to scam anyone, nor am I happy to see her being ridiculed. The destructiveness of this all is the worst part. She is just trying to prove what she believes she already knows. But, the study doesn’t do that. What she calls results, other scientists call errors, and her conclusions just make no sense. I don’t for one minute buy the ridiculous notion that other scientists are trying to discredit her for reasons of jealousy or some other agenda. That’s fantasy land. Folks like Disotell would like nothing better than to be part of a discovery as monumental as ultimate proof of bigfoot, but this study doesn’t provide that. It’s flawed, which is why it didn’t pass peer review and why every other scientist with relevant expertise who has looked at it since it was published has called out the same problems. There’s no conspiracy here, just a big mistake that is being compounded with every new piece of publicity it gets. Meanwhile the whole field looks even more foolish."

- Daniel Falconer

"That which is possible is inevitable."

- William Carlos Williams

Many of us in the NAWAC have adopted this quote as our unofficial motto. Discovery day is inevitable. It is coming.

A Kick In The Pants From Theodore Roosevelt

"It is sheer unmanliness and cowardice to shrink from the contest because at first there is failure, or because the work is difficult or repulsive."

~ Theodore Roosevelt

Whenever I need inspiration, Theodore Roosevelt somehow supplies it.

I will continue the search...

“The Wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask.”

- Nancy Wynne Newhall

Nobel Prize Winner on the Definition of Science

"Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceeding generation . . . As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way: Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."

- Richard Feynman, Nobel-prize-winning physicist,
in The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
as quoted in American Scientist v. 87, p. 462 (1999).

Wise Words

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."

- Anatole France

Eugene Wilson on Curiosity and the Resolute

"Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles of learning."

- Eugene S. Wilson