I thought how utterly we have forsaken the earth, in the sense of excluding it from our thoughts. There are but few who consider its physical hugeness, its rough enormity. It is still a disparate monstrosity, full of solitudes, barrens, wilds. It still dwarfs, terrifies, crushes. The rivers still roar, the mountains still crash, the winds still shatter. Man is an affair of cities. His gardens, orchards, and fields are mere scrapings. Somehow, however, he has managed to shut out the face of the giant from his windows. But the giant is there, nevertheless. —Wallace Stevens More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes. —Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
What is called a high standard of living consists in considerable measure of arrangements for avoiding muscular energy, increasing sensual pleasure, and enhancing caloric intake beyond any conceivable nutritional requirement. Nonetheless, the belief that increased production is a worthy social goal is very nearly absolute. —John Kenneth Galbraith More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
It wasn't the Exxon Valdez captain's driving that caused the Alaskan oil spill. It was yours. —Greenpeace advertisement More about this quote Tags: history accidents conservation driving oil Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
When man invented the bicycle, he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle. —Elizabeth West More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
My neighbor has a circular driveway. He can't get out. —Steven Wright More about this quote Tags: humor Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I'm optimistic about the future, but not about the future of this civilization. I'm optimistic about the civilization which will replace this one. —James Baldwin More about this quote Tags: optimism future civilization Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Every civilization reaches a moment of crisis. . . . This crisis presents its challenge: smash or go on to higher things. So far no civilization has ever met this challenge successfully. History is the study of the bones of civilizations that failed, as the pterodactyl and the dinosaur failed. —Colin Wilson More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The first rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging. —Molly Ivins More about this quote Tags: action wisdom debt holes Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
To people who think of themselves as God's house guests, American enterprise must seem arrogant beyond belief. Or stupid. A nation of amnesiacs, proceeding as if there were no other day but today. Assuming the land could also forget what had been done to it. —Barbara Kingsolver More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation. —Stephen Crane More about this quote Tags: relationship man universe obligation Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem. —G. K. Chesterton More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
A spirit of violence permeates the whole of our science, technology, economics. . . . It makes us think absurdities such as infinite growth in a finite environment were possible; that we could go on finding and burning as much oil every ten years as in all previous history; that science could cure the sickness of the environment; . . . that man's future was one of little work and endless leisure; that man has moved from the age of scarcity into the age of plenty. Nothing could be further from the truth. —E. F. Schumacher More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever you go right now? —William Stafford More about this quote Tags: respect the world Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Perhaps the most radical thing we can do is to stay home, so we can learn the names of the plants and animals around us; so that we can begin to know what tradition we're part of. —Terry Tempest Williams More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email