“There are aspects of human life that are not purely destructive, and there is a need to pay attention to the things around us while they are still around us. And you know, in a way, if you don't pay that attention, the anger is just bitterness.” IfsKnowsWayNeedsHumansStillsPayAttentionAspectPay AttentionHuman LifeDestructiveBitterness Author:W. S. Merwin
“I'm very pessimistic about the future of the human species. We have been so indifferent to life on the whole that it will take its toll. It's not just the polar bears that are having a hard time; what we're doing is gradually impoverishing and poisoning the whole of the rest of life.” HumansHas BeensHardWholeBearsSpeciesHard TimesIndifferentPessimisticTollsPoisoningHuman SpeciesRest Of LifeHaving A Hard TimePolar Bears Author:W. S. Merwin
“I think it's good for anybody to learn languages. Americans are particularly limited in that way. Europeans less so... We're beginning to have Spanish move in on English in the states because of all the people coming from Hispanic countries... and we're beginning to learn some Spanish. And I think that's a good thing... Only having one language is very limiting... You get to think that's the way the human race is made; there's only one language worth speaking... Well, this isn't good for English.” PeopleThinkingWayHumansWellsMadeCountryStatesMovingLanguageRaceGood ThingsHuman RaceHispanicSpeaking Well Author:W. S. Merwin
“Obviously a garden is not the wilderness but an assembly of shapes, most of them living, that owes some share of its composition, it’s appearance, to human design and effort, human conventions and convenience, and the human pursuit of that elusive, indefinable harmony that we call beauty. It has a life of its own, an intricate, willful, secret life, as any gardener knows. It is only the humans in it who think of it as a garden. But a garden is a relationship, which is one of the countless reasons why it is never finished.” ThinkingKnowsHumansReasonEffortSecretShareDesignShapesGardenHarmonyAppearanceFinishedPursuitReason WhyWildernessConventionsCompositionConvenienceGardenerAssemblyElusiveIntricateSecret LifeIndefinable Author:W. S. Merwin
