We cannot know the whole truth, which belongs to God alone, but our task nevertheless is to seek to know what is true.

The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and wasteful.

Our land passes in and out of our bodies just as our bodies pass in and out of our land

The grower of trees, the gardener, the man born to farming, whose hands reach into the ground and sprout, to him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death yearly, and comes back rejoicing. He has seen the light lie down in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn.

When you are new at sheep-raising and your ewe has a lamb, your impulse is to stay there and help it nurse and see to it and all. After a while you know that the best thing you can do is walk out of the barn.

Commercial conquest is far more thorough and final than military defeat.

We can grow good wheat and make good bread only if we understand that we do not live by bread alone.