"To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival."
-Wendell Berry

The change of mind I am talking about involves not just a change of knowledge,but also a change of attitude toward our essential ignorance,a change in our bearing in the face of mystery. The principle of ecology,if we will take it to heart,should keep us aware that our lives depend on other lives and upon processes and energies in an interlocking system that,though we can destroy it,we can neither fully understand nor fully control. And our great dangerousness is that,locked in our selfish and myopic economies,we have been willing to change or destroy far beyond our power to understand.
-Wendell Berry,A Continuous Harmony

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,1970

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
-Rachel Carson

The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are drifting side by side to our common doom.
-Clarence Darrow

"In practice,a global approach is needed when dealing with the problems of the spaceship earth which affect all of mankind. But local solutions,inevitably conditioned by local interests,are required for the problems peculiar to each human settlement.”
-René Jules Dubos,[quoted in “René Dubos,Friend of the Good Earth: Microbiologist,Medical Scientist” by Carol L. Moberg]

Under the general name of Commodity,I rank all those advantages which our senses owe to nature. This,of course,is a benefit which is temporary and mediate,not ultimate,like its service to the soul. Yet although low,it is perfect in its kind,and is the only use of nature which all men apprehend. The misery of man appears like childish petulance,when we explore the steady and prodigal provision that has been made for his support and delight on this green ball which floats him through the heavens. What angels invented these splendid ornaments,these rich conveniences,this ocean of air above,this ocean of water beneath,this firmament of earth between? this zodiac of lights,this tent of dropping clouds,this striped coat of climates,this fourfold year? Beasts,fire,water,stones,and corn serve him. The field is at once his floor,his work-yard,his play-ground,his garden,and his bed.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson,"Commodity",Chapter II from Nature,published as part of Nature; Addresses and Lectures

"The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains,rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us,and though distant,is close to us in spirit - this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden."
-Johann von Goethe

Let me enjoy the earth no less
Because the all-enacting Might
That fashioned forth its loveliness
Had other aims than my delight.
-Thomas Hardy

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,"Reader's Digest (July 1972)"

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew."
-Marshall McLuhan

There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our thoughts.
-Bertrand Russell

"Our primeval Mother Earth is an organism that no science in the world can rationalize. Everything on her that crawls and flies is dependent upon Her and all must hopelessly perish if that Earth dies that feeds us."
-Viktor Schauberger
"I thought how utterly we have forsaken the Earth,in the sense of excluding it from our thoughts. There are but few who consider its physical hugeness,its rough enormity. It is still a disparate monstrosity,full of solitudes,barrens,wilds. It still dwarfs,terrifies,crushes. The rivers still roar,the mountains still crash,the winds still shatter. Man is an affair of cities. His gardens,orchards and fields are mere scrapings. Somehow,however,he has managed to shut out the face of the giant from his windows. But the giant is there,nevertheless."
-Wallace Stevens,Letters

We travel together,passengers on a little spaceship,dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed for our safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care,the work,and,I will say,the love we give our fragile craft.
-Adlai Stevenson

As long as the Earth can make a spring every year,I can. As long as the Earth can flower and produce nurturing fruit,I can,because I'm the Earth. I won't give up until the Earth gives up.
-Alice Walker

In the broad earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed perfection.
-Walt Whitman,Song of the Universal,Leaves of Grass,1891