from  Voyage of the Turtle
Turtles may seem to lack sense, but they do not do senseless things. They are not terribly energetic, yet they do not waste energy. Turtles do not have the intellect to form opinions about greed, oppression, superstition or ideology, yet they do not inflict misery on themselves or other creatures.  Turtles cannot consider what might happen, yet nothing turtles do, threatens any ones future.  Turtles do not think about their next generation, but they risk and provide all they can to ensure that there will be one.

Meanwhile, we profess to love our own offspring above all else, yet above all else, it is they from whom we daily steal. We cannot learn to be more like turtles, but from turtles we could learn to be more human. That is the wisdom carried within one hundred million years of survival. What turtles could learn form us, I can not quite imagine. 

  by Dr. Carl Safina