Other Topics of Historical Interest
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
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 (1916-2005), former governor of Wisconsin, founder of Earth Day
When the well's dry, we know the worth of water.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Poor Richard's Almanac.
It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Christmas Eve sermon, 1967
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 (1955- ), 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 (1950- ) and Amory B. Lovins (1948- ), Utne Reader, November-December, 1989.
The Congress, the Administration and the public all share a profound commitment to the rescue of our natural environment, and the preservation of the Earth as a place both habitable by and hospitable to man.
—President Richard Nixon (1913-1994), "Reorganization Plan No. 3," message to Congress about plans to establish EPA, July 1970.
It is time for us now as a nation to exercise the same reasonable foresight in dealing with our great natural resources that would be shown by any prudent man in conserving and widely using the property which contains the assurance of well-being for himself and his children.
—President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), remarks at the Conference on Conservation of Natural Resources, 1908.
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 (1914-1981), 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 (1932- ), Rethinking Environmentalism, December 13, 1998.
I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found.
—John Muir (1838-1914), journal.
Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them.
—Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), Sand Country Alamanac, 1949.
Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge.
—Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
Environmentally friendly cars will soon cease to be an option ... they
will become a necessity.
—Fujio Cho (1937- ), honorary Chairman of Toyota Motors; North American International Auto Show, 2004.
Nature provides exceptions to every rule.
—Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), 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 ThomasEarth Ethics, Summer 1990.
The Truly Healthy environment is not merely safe but stimulating.
—William H. Stewart (1913-1993), 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.
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
Integrity is wholeness...
The wholeness of life and things,
The divine beauty of the universe.
Love that, not man apart from that.
—Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962), "The Answer," 1936
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.
Our task must be to free ourselves ... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
—Albert Einstein (1879-1955).
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
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), 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 (1902-1967), "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," 1926
Water is the best of all things.
—Pindar (c. 522 BC - c. 438 BC), Olympian Odes
