For several centuries Western civilization has had a drive for material accumulation, continual extensions of economic power, termed "progress."… The longing for growth is not wrong. The nub of the problem is how to flip over, as in jujitsu, the magnificent growth energy of modern civilization into a nonacquisitive search for deeper knowledge of self and nature.

About Gary Snyder

Gary Sherman Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of Deep Ecology".

More quotations from Gary Snyder

Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.

—Gary Snyder

nature home

It has always been part of basic human experience to live in a culture of wilderness. There has been no wilderness without some kind of human presence for several hundred thousand years. Nature is not a place to visit, it is home.

—Gary Snyder

humanity perception experience nature

Find your place on the planet, dig in, and take responsibility from there.

—Gary Snyder

responsibility work

History

25 Apr 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

For several centuries Western civilization has had a drive for material accumulation, continual extensions of economic power, termed "progress.". . . The longing for growth is not wrong. The nub of the problem is how to flip over, as in jujitsu, the magnificent growth energy of modern civilization into a nonacquisitive search for deeper knowledge of self and nature.