|
Environmental Quotes Homepage
Environmental Quotes To Lend Support for
the Preservation of Our Natural Environment - Page 2
Commentary © 2007 Richard Chandler & Bonnett Chandler
Chief Seattle, leader of the Suwamish Tribe in what is now the state of Washington, was known for pursuing a path of peace with the white settlers. In this quotation we hear his reverence for conservation and the environment.
“If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.”
- Chief Seattle (1786-1866)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The visionary architect and environmentalist R. Buckminster Fuller devoted his life to figuring our how humans could successfully live on “spaceship earth,” a phrase he invented and used in his book, ‘An Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth’.
“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Married to acclaimed author and aviator, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Charles ‘Lucky Lindy’ Lindbergh was famous for achieving the 1st solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. In his later years he became involved in the environmental movement.
“I realized that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.”
- Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
An author, naturalist, and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was perhaps best known for writing ‘Walden’, a reflection on simple living in natural surroundings.
“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.”
- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Al Gore, the most prominent force behind raising environmental awareness about the global warming crisis, introduced this quotation of R. Buckminster Fuller by saying it is time for … “humankind to begin a three-year campaign to make everyone on our planet aware of how we can solve the climate crisis in time to avoid catastrophe. Individuals must be a part of the solution.”
“If the success or failure of this planet, and of human beings, depended on how I am and what I do, how would I be? What would I do?”
- R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This Chinese philosopher was known to question the premise that one person experiences the world in much the same way as another. He states that it is even harder to know if the ways in which an animal experiences the world is in any way like the ways in which humans perceive it. Furthermore, we cannot say that our perception is superior to an animal’s perception. Therefore it is quite uncertain that we can absolutely know what the nature of the world really is, objectively.
“Heaven and earth do nothing.
Yet there is nothing they do not do.”
- Zhuangzi, also known as Chuang-Tzu (369-286 B.C.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It seems incredible to me that years before Einstein discovered that matter and energy are in reality two aspects of the same primordial essence, Emerson seems to have come to the same conclusion, as evidenced by this quotation…
"There is no unemployment force in Nature. All decomposition is recomposition."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
From the pen of Lane Olinghouse, who seems to be best known for quotes like this one…
"Remember when atmospheric contaminants were romantically called stardust?"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A disturbing question from the author of ‘The Environmental Handbook’…
“Is our environment to be handed over to ceaseless, unthinking, development by those who think only of what it could yield to them today?…There’s a planet who needs your help.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The following quote, by perhaps the most leading edge environmentalist, begs this question… ‘Even when we do know the right way to treat our planet, why don’t we do so?
“The most important fact about Spaceship Earth: an instruction book didn’t come with it.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
From an existential Spanish philosopher who notes that 1 + 1 = 2; but 2 – 1 could leave us with 0…
“I am I plus my surroundings; and if I do not preserve the latter, I do not preserve myself.”
- Jose Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Two Environmental Quotes...
"Instead of continuing to act as if there is any rationality whatsoever in our current “manifest destiny” approach to ruling the earth, how might we more humbly accept our interdependence within the totality of nature?"
- Richard Chandler
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Victor Hugo was a French author, poet and political figure. He was less known as a visual artist, but his artwork was much ahead of his time and foreshadowed surrealism.
“In the relations of man with the animals, with the flowers, with objects of creation, there is a great ethic, scarcely perceived as yet, which will at length break forth into light.”
- Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
From the inventor of the geodesic dome and the originator of the concept, 'Spaceship Earth', R. Buckminster Fuller. Many of the environmental ideas that we are only now beginning to embrace were first developed by this modern day renaissance man over 80 years ago.
"We are going to have to find ways of organizing ourselves cooperatively, sanely, scientifically, harmonically and in regenerative spontaneity with the rest of humanity around earth... We are not going to be able to operate our spaceship earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody."
- R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Little Falls, MN Native Charles Lindberg Implores
Us to Respect the Quality of Our Planet's Life.
Is civilization progress? The challenge, I think, is clear; and, as clearly, the final answer will be given not by our amassing of knowledge, or by the discoveries of our science, or by the speed of our aircraft, but by the effect our civilized activities as a whole have upon the quality of our planet's life - the life of plants and animals as well as that of men.
- Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wisdom Quote from Ken Kesey Note: While this quotation by Ken Kesey, a modern thinker who was very influential in the 1960’s – the 1970’s, is overtly about the environment, it has a great deal to offer for many aspects of our lives, such as in relationships, advise and stress management.
"Take what you can use and let the rest go by."
- Ken Kesey
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Back To Today's Quotes
|