Environmental Quotes
The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men’s apples and head their cabbages. Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac États et empires de la lune, 1656
You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes, 1755
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle, 1855
Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he’s been given. But up to now he hasn’t been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life’s become extinct, the climate’s ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day. Anton Chekhov Uncle Vanya 1897
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. Henry David Thoreau
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. ~Native American Proverb
A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole [of] nature in its beauty. Albert Einstein 1950
The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future. Marya Mannes More in Anger, 1958
Human destiny is bound to remain a gamble, because at some unpredictable time and in some unforeseeable manner nature will strike back. ~Rene Dubos, Mirage of Health, 1959
Will urban sprawl spread so far that most people lose all touch with nature? Will the day come when the only bird a typical American child ever sees is a canary in a pet shop window? When the only wild animal he knows is a rat – glimpsed on a night drive through some city slum? When the only tree he touches is the cleverly fabricated plastic evergreen that shades his gifts on Christmas morning? Frank N. Ikard North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, Houston, March 1968
As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog across the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask ourselves seriously whether we really wish some future universal historian on another planet to say about us: “With all their genius and with all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and food and water and ideas,” or, “They went on playing politics until their world collapsed around them.” U Thant, speech, 1970
And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can and the cellophane wrapper and the paper plate, and this was good because Man could then take his automobile and buy all his food in one place and He could save that which was good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that which had no further use. And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried: “Look at this Godawful mess.” Art Buchwald 1970
This is a beautiful planet and not at all fragile. Earth can withstand significant volcanic eruptions, tectonic cataclysms, and ice ages. But this canny, intelligent, prolific, and extremely self-centered human creature had proven himself capable of more destruction of life than Mother Nature herself…. We’ve got to be stopped. ~Michael L. Fischer, Harper’s, July 1990
“The human brain now holds the key to our future. We have to recall the image of the planet from outer space: a single entity in which air, water, and continents are interconnected. That is our home.” David Suzuki
“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.
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition. Carl Sagan
We sometimes emphasize the danger in a crisis without focusing on the opportunities that are there. We should feel a great sense of urgency because it is the most dangerous crisis we have ever faced, by far. But it also provides us with opportunities to do a lot of things we ought to be doing for other reasons anyway. And to solve this crisis we can develop a shared sense of moral purpose. (talking about the environmental crisis) Al Gore
Sources:
Ecobites Quote Garden Thinkexist US EPA
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