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Sustainable development, climate change & sustainability in general
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To halt the decline of an ecosystem, it is necessary to think like an ecosystem - Douglas Wheeler The world's forests are a shared stolen treasure that we must put back for our children's future - Archbishop Desmond Tutu We can only truly be civilised people when we have regular and meaningful contact with the wild world - Simon Barnes, Wild Notebook, The Times (31 December 2011) Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower - Hans Christian Anderson In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia - Charles Lindbergh Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake - Wallace Stevens The mountains are calling and I must go - John Muir Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them - Mark Twain If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe - Carl Sagan Don't count the seeds in an apple, count the apples in a seed! - Aine Belton (Author, speaker, spiritual teacher, & founder of the Global Love Project) ...we depend on the gifts of nature, but these gifts must be received with gratitude and not exploited or abused - Satish Kumar (ecological campaigner, writing in National Trust Magazine, Spring 2010) ...the future of mankind can be assured only if we rediscover ways in which to live as a part of nature, not apart from her - HRH The Prince of Wales addressing UN climate conference COP15, Copenhagen (December 2009) We won't have a society if we destroy the environment - Margaret Mead Modern society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle - Pope John Paul II Wildlife of the world is disappearing... simply because of a general and widespread ignorance and neglect - HRH Prince Philip If it's unenvironmental it is uneconomical. That is the rule of nature - Mollie Beattie, Director, US Fish and Wildlife Service 1993-1996 Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites - William Ruckelshaus Modern man talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side - E F Schumacher As each tree falls so does the earth's ability to heal itself and to adapt to the effects of our changing climate - Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs addressing Copenhagen COP15 UN conference (13 December 2009) Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts - and paradoxically also facing calls for a return to so-called "old-fashioned," traditional banking - so Nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too. So, if we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust - HRH The Prince of Wales, The Richard Dimbleby Lecture "Facing the Future" (8 July 2009) I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defence of our resources is just as important as defence abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend? - Robert Redford The conservation of nature, the proper care for the human environment and a general concern for the long-term future of the whole of our planet are absolutely vital if future generations are to have a chance to enjoy their existence on this earth - HRH Prince Philip The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now - Dambisa Moyo, Zambian economist The natural environment is the great outpatient department where we can go for healing - William Bird, GP, Berkshire West Primary Care Trust (quoted in Sustainable Development Commission 'Healthy Futures' publication, March 2007) What humbugs we are, who pretend to live for beauty, and never see the dawn! - Logan Pearsall Smith Nature can do more than physicians - Oliver Cromwell Let the clean air blow the cobwebs from your body. Air is medicine - Lillian Russell (1862-1922) The truly healthy environment is not merely safe but stimulating - William H Stewart Nature's rhythms are a constant source of inspiration - philharding.net/quotes-corner/ Animals are such agreeable friends; they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms - George Eliot Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul - John Muir I can enjoy society in a room; but out of doors, nature is company enough for me - William Hazlitt Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries - Jimmy Carter A lot of work and money has been spent on astronomy and yet we have not found life. So we are rare, and rare things tend to be fragile and you have to be careful about them - Rt Hon John Gummer MP (writing in Water, Energy & Environment magazine, June 2007) We all tend to feel better in the natural environment - so why are we working so hard to destroy it? - Dr Michael Dixon, Chairman, NHS Alliance (quoted in Sustainable Development Commission 'Healthy Futures' publication, March 2007) By starting from the ground and tapping into the absolute, uncheatable truth of nature we can make ourselves better - Monty Don, TV gardener (profiled in The Sunday Times, 29.10.2006) From a distance the world looks blue and green, At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realise I am fighting for humanity - Chico Mendes, Rubber tappers' leader The best friend of earth and of man is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully and economically, we have one of the greatest resources on the earth - Frank Lloyd Wright The Amazon is a canary in a coal mine for the Earth - Dan Nepstadt, Ecologist (October 2005) We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap - Kurt Vonnegut Jnr ...our culture's frenzied and mindless assault on the last shreds of nature may not be the wisest course... We're melting the ice caps, ripping up the rain forest, and vacuuming the oceans of everything that wriggles - George Meyer, writer for The Simpsons (BBC Green Room, 3 August 2006) Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal - Edward Wilson Forests precede civilizations, deserts follow - philharding.net/quotes-corner/ As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness, love and compassion - Richard Gere Our health relies entirely on the vitality of our fellow species on Earth - Harrison Ford Civilization... wrecks the planet from seafloor to stratosphere - Richard Bach Your descendants shall gather your fruits - Virgil We define our landscapes as much as they define us - philharding.net/quotes-corner/ All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child - Marie Curie, twice Nobel Prize winning scientist (1867-1934) You are always rich when you can see and feel the beauty of this world - Aine Belton (Author, speaker, spiritual teacher, & founder of the Global Love Project) An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment - David Attenborough It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living - David Attenborough There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story - Linda Hogan If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen - Henry David Thoreau, American writer (1817-1862) We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect - Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values... God made life simple. It is man who complicates it - Charles A Lindbergh I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God - Alan Hovhaness Man is a complex being; he makes the deserts bloom and lakes die - Gil Stern Activities that destroy ecosystems always destroy jobs - philharding.net/quotes-corner/ The wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask - Nancy Newhall The first law of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts - Aldo Leopold It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment - Ansel Adams, US photographer and environmentalist (1902 - 1984) The preservation of biodiversity is not just a job for governments. International and non-governmental organisations, the private sector and each and every individual have a role to play in changing entrenched outlooks and ending destructive patterns of behaviour - Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General on the 2003 International Day of Biological Diversity Nature has been for me, for as long as I remember, a source of solace, inspiration, adventure, and delight; a home, a teacher, a companion - Lorraine Anderson Nature is just enough; but men and women must comprehend and accept her suggestions - Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825 - 1921) Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral - John Burroughs Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd - Baruch Spinoza Nature has placed nothing so high that virtue can not reach it - Curtius-Rufus (100 AD) Nature does not compromise; a pelican is not a compromise between a crow and otter, it is just a pelican. Nature makes no compromises; any inefficient products are recalled to the manufacturer! - Amory Lovins Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better - Albert Einstein If you live according to nature, you never will be poor; if according to the world's caprice, you will never be rich - Publilius Syrus (42 BC) Nature uses as little as possible of anything - Johannes Kepler Nature does nothing uselessly - Aristotle If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way - Aristotle Nature did all things well - Michelangelo Men argue; nature acts - Voltaire Every object is beautiful in motion; a ship under sail, trees gently agitated with the wind, and a fine woman dancing, are three instances in point - Abigail Adams (1744-1818) 2nd First Lady of the USA We celebrate the cherry tree not for its efficiency but for its effectiveness - and for its beauty. Its materials are in constant flow, and all those thousands of useless cherry blossoms look gorgeous. Then they fall to the ground and become soil again, so there's no problem - William McDonough, architect The law of nature is the strictest expression of necessity - Molescholte Being inexhaustible, life and nature are a constant stimulus for a creative mind - Hans Hofmann Nothing is rich but the inexhaustible wealth of nature. She shows us only surfaces, but she is a million fathoms deep - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Lose yourself in nature and find peace - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Nature is the most thrifty thing in the world; she never wastes anything, she undergoes change, but there's no annihilation, the essence remains - matter is eternal - Horace Binney Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed - Francis Bacon (16th Century philospher) Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own - Charles Dickens Nature: a place where birds fly around uncooked - Oscar Wilde It seems to me that we all look at nature too much, and live with her too little - Oscar Wilde A thing of beauty is a joy forever - John Keats From dawn to dusk, winter to spring, summer and autumn; the contrasts of nature refresh the mind and renew our sense of balance - Phil Harding, motivational coach, author & management consultant For the mind disturbed, the still beauty of dawn is nature's finest balm - Edwin Way Teale (1899-1980) On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it - Jules Renard After a visit to the beach, it's hard to believe that we live in a material world - Pam Shaw One can never study nature too much and too hard - Vincent van Gogh Study nature not books - Jean Louis Agassiz It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures - Vincent van Gogh Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more - Vincent van Gogh Land really is the best art - Andy Warhol To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature - August Rodin Nature is the art of God - Dante Alighieri The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration - Claude Monet Things perfected by nature are better than those finished by art - Cicero For art may err, but nature cannot miss - John Dryden Art is a harmony parallel with nature - Paul Cézanne Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty, if only we have the eyes to see them - John Ruskin (1819-1900) No man manages his affairs as well as a tree does - George Bernard Shaw I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree - (Alfred) Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it - Confucius Sounds of the wind or sounds of the sea, make me happy just to be - June Polis There is however, a true music of nature; the song of the birds, the whisper of leaves, the ripple of waters upon a sandy shore, the wail of wind or sea - Lubbock A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song - Lou Holz Everybody loves birdsong. It's a human need... the sound of birds gives a deep, if sometimes almost unnoticed, pleasure - Simon Barnes, Wild Notebook, The Times (31 December 2011) Acquiring the trick of listening to birds will teach you how better to enjoy life and how better to endure it - Simon Barnes, Wild Notebook, The Times (31 December 2011) In every walk with nature, you receive far more than you seek - philharding.net/quotes-corner/ The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in air, but simply walking on this earth - Thich Nhat Hanh We must put a proper value on the natural world: it would be odd to cherish a Constable but not the landscape he depicted - 'This Common Inheritance' Britain's (first) Environmental Strategy (1990) There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country. A fine landscape is like a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo. Even a bicycle goes too fast - Paul Scott Mowrer Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you - Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959) Spring is nature's way of saying "Let's party!" - Robin Williams (American actor and comedian) Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day - W Earl Hall What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) The Earth laughs in flowers - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment - O'Keefe If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change - Buddha Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul - Prophet Muhammad I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers - Claude Monet There are always flowers for those who want to see them - Henri Matisse Take the time to smell a rose - philharding.net/quotes-corner/ Flowers are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Love comforteth like sunshine after rain - William Shakespeare A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won't come true - Ray Evans The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Uniformity is not nature's way; diversity is nature's way - Vandana Shiva Those who love and free nature are never alone - Rachel Carson I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free - Charles Dickens The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man - philharding.net/quotes-corner/ Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift - Albert Einstein Our environment is like a patchwork quilt. Each "patch" is dependent on those around it. If one part unravels, it affects the rest - Hemeon This curious world which we inhabit is more wonderful than it is convenient, more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used - Henry David Thoreau, American writer (1817-1862) If we once, and for so long, lived in balance with nature and each other, we should be able to do so again - John Zerzan The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost - Gilbert Keith Chesterton If you are missing out on the natural joy and wisdom of life, it is because you have been taught to ignore it....Reconnecting with nature consists of bringing into your consciousness a sensory way of thinking and relating with which you are born - Michael J. Cohen Nature never says one thing and wisdom another - Decimus Junius Juvenalis In the United Kingdom no one lives more than 75 miles from the sea. For us, as an island nation, the sea has an all-embracing presence. Spiritually and physically we are intimately connected with our shores. The sea has immense power, which we ignore at our peril - National Trust 'Shifting Shores - Living with a changing coastline' (2005) There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore; To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug - Helen Keller When you realise how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky - Buddha I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you. And I think to myself what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. And I think to myself what a wonderful world - What a Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong (1901-1970) Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man - Orison Swett Marten If we could destroy custom at a blow and see the stars as a child sees them, we should need no other apocalypse - Gilbert Keith Chesterton I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high o'er vales and hills. When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodil; beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze - William Wordsworth (1770-1850) April hath put a spirit of youth in everything - William Shakespeare The earth has music for those who listen - William Shakespeare Come forth into the light of things. Let nature be your teacher - William Wordsworth (1770-1850) The poetry of the earth is never dead - John Keats I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order - John Burroughs When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves - David Orr Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of autumn - John Muir Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower - Albert Camus When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world - John Muir The beauty of mother nature is her ability to make complex things appear simple - Loius E Samuels, M.D. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts - Rachel Carson Nature always tends to act in the simplest way - Bernoulli The value of nature: On many levels, physical, mental and spiritual, our life is dependent on the natural environment. That is to say, our existence and well-being require the maintenance of that which has its being irrespective of ourselves and our efforts - Keith Innes In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences - R Ingersoll If we care about the countyside we must eat the view. Most wonderful landscapes are the product of many years of farming. By buying the products of that farming we can all do our part to sustain our beautiful scenery - Richard Wakeford, Chief Executive, Countryside Agency (2002) People everywhere depend upon biodiversity for their livelihoods, their quality of life, and to provide basic ecological services on which all life depends - The Business and Biodiversity Resource Centre (www.businessandbiodiversity.org) The spirit of a country, if it is to be true to itself, needs continually to draw great breaths of inspiration from the simple realities of the country; from the smell of its soil, the pattern of its fields, the beauty of its scenery and from the men and women who dwell and toil in the rural areas - Sir George Stapledon in 'Make Fruitful the Land' Man's heart away from nature becomes hard - Standing Bear The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature - Anne Frank Till now man has been up against nature, from now on he will be up against his own nature - Dennis Gabor For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled - Richard Feynman If you are thinking one year ahead, sow seed. If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate the people - Chinese proverb The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives - Indian proverb We all live downstream - David Suzuki Modern technology owes ecology an apology - Alan M Eddison The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences - Frank Herbert The environment is not as 'cheap as chips', it's priceless and we all have a part to play in protecting it - David Dickinson (TV celebrity) Trees are your best antiques - Alexander Smith In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful - Alice Walker Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence - Hal Borland Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience - Ralph Waldo Emerson Only when the last tree is cut, only when the last river is polluted, only when the last fish is caught, will they realise that you can't eat money - Native American proverb And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything - William Shakespeare Let us a little permit nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we - Michel de Montaigne But while nature has considerable resilience, there is a limit to how far that resilience can be stretched. No one knows how close to the limit we are getting. The darker it gets, the faster we're driving - Douglas Adams (author) The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value - Theodore Roosevelt (US President 1901-1909) Organic agriculture is more about fairness and respect than it is about parts-per-billion of pesticide residues - Jim Hightower, organic campaigner (USA) If we do not permit the Earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food either - Joseph Woodkrutch In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we have been taught - Baba Dioum Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair - Kahlil Gibran Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather - John Ruskin Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while - Kin Hubbard A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine - Anne Bronte To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase it's usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very properity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed - Theodore Roosevelt If you mess with something long enough, it will break - Schmidt's Law Every child is born a naturalist. His eyes are, by nature, open to the glories of the stars, the beauty of the flowers, and the mystery of life - R Search Beauty dies where litter lies - philharding.net/quotes-corner/ And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can and the cellophane wrapper and the paper plate, and this was good because Man could then take his automobile and buy all his food in one place and He could save that which was good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that which had no further use. And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried: "Look at this Godawful mess!" - Art Buchwald When you defile the pleasant streams, Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises - Pedro Calderon de la Barca For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver - Martin Luther, reformer and teacher (1483 - 1546) Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade - Arabian proverb Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find - Quoted in Time magazine Anywhere is paradise; it's up to you - philharding.net/quotes-corner/ Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished - Lao Tzu
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