Environmental Quotes

• “Waste not the smallest thing created, for grains of sand make mountains, and atomies infinity.” -E. Knight

• “I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security.  Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?” -Robert Redford, Yosemite National Park dedication, 1985

• “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”  -Native American Proverb

• "Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain, For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain. America, America, man sheds his waste on thee, And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea." -George Carlin

• “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” -John Muir

• “To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance.” -Buddha

• “We have to shift our emphasis from economic efficiency and materialism towards a sustainable quality of life and to healing of our society, of our people and our ecological systems.” -Janet Holmes à Court

• “The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.”  -Richard Rogers

• "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

• "Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations." -Jean Paul Richter

• “Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you chose for you will become like them.” - W. Clement Stone

• “The world we have created today has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them.” -Albert Einstein

• “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” -William Shakespeare

• “What is the use of a house if we don’t have a decent planet to put it on?” -Henry David Thoreau

• “The Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to Earth.  Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.  Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” -Chief Seattle, Dwamish Tribe

• “There is no such place as away.” -Chief Seattle

• “May the footprints we leave behind show that we’ve walked in kindness toward the Earth and every living thing.” -Inspired by Native American philosophy

• “If you do not like the way the world is, you change it.  You have an obligation to change it.  You just do it one step at a time.” -Marian Wright Edelman

• “I am only one, but still I am one.  I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.  I will not refuse to do something I can do.” -Helen Keller

• “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” -Mahatma Gandhi

• “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

• “Let every individual and institution now think and act as a responsible trustee of Earth, seeking choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will provide a sustainable future, eliminate pollution, poverty and violence, awaken the wonder of life and foster peaceful progress in the human adventure.” -John McConnell, founder of International Earth Day

• “If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology.  We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.” -President Lyndon B. Johnson

• “The environment, after all, is where we all meet, where we all have a mutual interest.  It is one thing that all of us share.  It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become.” -First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson

• “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• “One individual cannot possibly make a difference, alone.  It is individual efforts, collectively, that makes a noticeable difference – all the difference in the world!” -Dr. Jane Goodall

• “Space travel has given us a new appreciation for the Earth.  We realize that the Earth is special.  We’ve seen it from afar.  We realize that the Earth is the only natural home for man we know of, and that we had better protect it.” -James Erwin, U.S. Astronaut

• “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

• “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better – It’s not.” -The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss

• “What good is achieving academic excellence if the planet we live on is compromised for ourselves and future generations?” -Mary Allen, SWANCC Recycling and Education Director