"To
be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be
human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate
from."
- Terry Tempest Williams, testimony before
the Senate Subcommittee on Forest & Public Lands Management
regarding the Utah Public Lands Management Act of 1995. Washington,
D.C. July 13, 1995. |
"If
we use resources productively and take to heart the lessons learned
from coping with the energy crisis, we face a future confronted
only, as Pogo, once said, by insurmountable opportunities. The many
crises facing us should be seen, then, not as threats, but as chances
to remake the future so it serves all beings."
- L. Hunter Lovins and Amory B. Lovins, Utne
Reader, November-December, 1989. |
"The
famous balance of nature is the most extraordinary of all cybernetic
systems. Left to itself, it is always self-regulated."
- Joseph Wood Krutch (1893-1970), Saturday
Review, June 8, 1963. |
"We
have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the
earth as its other creatures do."
- Barbara Ward, Only One Earth, 1972. |
"Nature
is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty."
- John Ruskin, (1819-1900). |
"There
must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must
have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see
people throwing away things we could use."
- Mother Teresa (1910-1997), A Gift for
God, 1975. |
"All
nature wears one universal grin."
- Henry Fielding (1707-1754), Tom Thumb
the Great, 1730. |
"The
silence of a shut park does not sound like the country silence;
it is tense and confined."
- Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973), The Death
of the Heart, 1938. |
"The
weight of our civilization has become so great, it now ranks as
a global force and a significant wild card in the human future along
with the Ice Ages and other vicissitudes of a volatile and changeable
planetary system"
- Dianne Dumanoski, Rethinking Environmentalism,
December 13, 1998. |
"Until
man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called
scientific knowledge."
- Thomas Edison |
"Environmentally
friendly cars will soon cease to be an option...they
will become a necessity."
- Fujio Cho, President of Toyota Motors, North
American International
Auto Show, 2004. |
"Nature
provides exceptions to every rule."
- Margaret Fuller, The Dial, July 1843. |
"Water
is H2O, hydrogen two parts, oxygen one, but there is
also a third thing, that makes it water and nobody knows what that
is."
- D.H. Lawrence, (1885-1930), Pansies,
1929. |
"We
owe our lives to the sun... How is it, then, that we feel no gratitude?"
- Lewis Thomas, Earth Ethics, Summer
1990. |
"The
Truly Healthy environment is not merely safe but stimulating."
- William H. Stewart, Environmental Science
and Technology, February 1968. |
"Away,
away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs, --
To the silent wilderness,
Where the soul need not repress
Its music."
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, (1792-1822), "To Jane, The
Invitation," c.1820
|
"For
many of us, water simply flows from a faucet, and we think little
about it beyond this point of contact. We have lost a sense of respect
for the wild river, for the complex workings of a wetland, for the
intricate web of life that water supports."
- Sandra Postel, Last Oasis: Facing Water
Scarcity, 2003. |
"The Silence of a shut park does not sound like the country
silence: it is tense and confirmed."
- Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973), The Death
of the Heart. |
"It
is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose
should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life.
But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to
exist; the threat is rather to life itself."
- Rachel Carson, (1907-1964) The Sea Around Us, 1951 |
"He
who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters,
the plants, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments,
is the rich and royal man."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Essays, Second Series,
1844
|
"A
Healthy Ecology is the Basis for a Healthy Economy"
- Claudine Schneider, U.S. Representative
in The Green Lifestyle Handbook. |
"You
cannot affirm the power plant and condemn the smokestack, or affirm
the smoke and condemn the cough"
- Wendell Berry, The Gift of the Good Land,
1981. |
"One Touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Troilus
and Cressida. |
"When
the well's dry, we know the worth of water."
- Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790), Poor Richard's Almanac.
|
"Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead (1901-1978) quoted in John M. RIchardson,
ed. Making it Happen, 1982
|
"We
will look upon the earth and her sister planets as being with us,
not for us."
- Mary Daly, "Beyond God the Father"
1973 |
"To
halt the decline of an ecosystem, it is necessary to think like
an ecosystem."
- Douglas P. Wheeler, EPA Journal, September-October
1990 |
"It
is in man's heart that the life of nature's spectacle exists; to
see it, one must feel it."
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Emile, 1762 |
"If
there is magic on the planet, it is contained in Water."
- Loren Eiseley, The Immense Journey, 1957. |
"The
use of sea and air is common to all; neither can a title to the
ocean belong to any people or private persons, forasmuch as neither
nature nor public use and custom permit any possession therof."
-Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) |
"Let
the clean air blow the cobwebs from your body. Air is medicine."
- Lillian Russell (1862-1922), quoted in Reader's
Digest, March 1922 |
"The
ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice
something today for future generations whose words of thanks will
not be heard."
- Gaylord Nelson, former governor of Wisconsin, founder
of Earth Day |
"Earth
provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's
greed."
- Mohandas K. Gandhi quoted in EF Schumacher, Small
is Beautiful. |
"The
air, the water and the ground are free gifts to man and no one has
the power to portion them out in parcels. Man must drink and breathe
and walk and therefore each man has a right to his share of each."
- James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851), The Prairie 1827 |
I've
known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of
human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.-
- Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers,"
1926 |
"Water
is the best of all things."
- Pindar (c. 522 BC - c. 438 BC), Olympian Odes |