quotations about environment
With the greenhouse in effect our environment was wrecked
Now I can only laugh as I read our epitaph
We end our lives as moles in the dark of the dawn patrol
MEGADETH
"Dawn Patrol", Rust in Peace
What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.
MAHATMA GANDHI
attributed, Strangely Like War: The Global Assault on Forests
The Earth is what we all have in common.
WENDELL BERRY
The Art of the Commonplace
The truly healthy environment is not merely safe but stimulating.
WILLIAM H. STEWART
Environmental Science and Technology
The hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself.
JOHN MUIR
My First Summer in the Sierra
Is a park any better than a coal mine? What's a mountain got that a slag pile hasn't? What would you rather have in your garden--an almond tree or an oil well?
JEAN GIRAUDOUX
The Madwoman of Chaillot
Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom and lakes die.
GIL STERN
attributed, The Harper Book of Quotations
We cannot permit the environmental movement to shut down the United States. We cannot shut down the lives of many Americans by going to the extreme on the environment.
GEORGE BUSH
campaign rally, May 30, 1992
Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed ... We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in.
WALLACE STEGNER
The Sound of Mountain Water
What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Familiar Letters
While the farmer holds the title to the land, actually it belongs to all the people because civilization itself rests upon the soil. Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
attributed, Land Use
You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.
WANGARI MAATHAI
attributed, Managing the Environmental Crisis in Ghana
If the environment permits it, anyone can learn whatever he chooses to learn; and if the individual permits it, the environment will teach him everything it has to teach.
VIOLA SPOLIN
Improvisation for the Theater
In America today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops.
PAUL BROOKS
The Pursuit of Wilderness
That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.
MARCUS AURELIUS
Meditations
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
"Ah, Wilderness! Save It", The New York Times, September 4, 1984
I'm a product of my environment
My vocabulary's like licking the gutter
CIRCLE JERKS
"Product of My Environment"
It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little.
OSCAR WILDE
De Profundis
A strong, successful man is not the victim of his environment. He creates favorable conditions. His own inherent force and energy compel things to turn out as he desires. But a weak man is the victim of outside influences.
ORISON SWETT MARDEN
Progressive Business Man
I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos.
GEORGE CARLIN
"The Planet Is Fine"