Quotes for All
There is little history in the study of nature, and there is little nature in the study of history. I want to show how we can remedy that cultural lag by developing a new perspective on the historian’s enterprise, one that will make us Darwinians at last. Donald Worster
Environmental history was . . . born out of a moral purpose, with strong political commitments behind it, but also became, as it matured, a scholarly enterprise that had neither any simple, nor any single, moral or political agenda to promote. Its principal goal became one of deepening our understanding of how humans have been … Read more
Environmental historians . . . insist that we have got to go . . . down to the earth itself as an agent and presence in history. Here we will discover even more fundamental forces at work over time. And to appreciate those forces we must now and then get out of parliamentary chambers, out … Read more
We may be entering a new phase of history, a time when we begin to rediscover . . . the traditional teaching that power must entail restraint and responsibility, the ancient awareness that we are interdependent with all of nature and that our sense of community must take in the whole of creation. Donald Worster
Within the various acts of the ecodrama should be included scenes in which men’s and women’s roles come to center stage and scenes in which Nature ‘herself’ is an actress. Carolyn Merchant
Does a poet create, originate, initiate the thing called a poem, or is his behavior merely the product of his genetic and environmental histories? B. F. Skinner
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. Ansel Adams
The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.
Rachel Carson
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
Rachel Carson