Ask the world to reveal its quietude- not the silence of machines when they are still, but the true quiet by which birdsongs, trees, bellworts, snails, clouds, storms become what they are, and are nothing else.

There’s nothing under the ground that’s worth more than the little layer of topsoil sitting on top of it.

The more artificial a human environment becomes, the more the word ‘natural’ becomes a term of value.

The ability to speak exactly is intimately related to the ability to know exactly.

To the extent that we consume, in our present circumstances, we are guilty. To the extent that we guilty consumers are conservationists, we are absurd. But what can we do? Must we go on writing letters to politicians and donating to conservation organizations until the majority of our fellow citizens agree with us? Or can we do something directly to solve our share of the problem? I am a conservationist. I believe wholeheartedly in putting pressure on the politicians and in maintaining the conservation organizations.

A liberal education rests on the assumption that nature and human nature do not change very much or very fast and that one therefore needs to understand the past.

We will instead have to measure our economy by the health of the ecosystems and human communities where we do our work.