“To say what or where we came from has nothing to do with what or where we came from. We do not come from there any more, but only from each word that proceeds out of the mouth of the unnamed. And yet sometimes it is our only way of pointing to who we are.” WaySometimesMouthsWho We ArePointingWhere We Came Author:W. S. Merwin
“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
“There is part of a structure in which every species is related to every other species. And they're built up on species, like a pyramid. The simpler cell organisms, and then the more complicated ones, all the way up to the mammals and birds and so forth. We call it 'developing upward'... The whole thing depends on every part of it. And we're taking out the stones from the pyramid.” WayWholeDependsBirdBuiltStonesStructureSpeciesComplicatedCellsDevelopingRelatedOrganismsPyramidsMammals Author:W. S. Merwin
“If there'd been a better-balanced society, where there were other ways of making a decent living, I think it might have been different. That's not the way this setup work.” IfsThinkingWayHas BeensDifferentMightDecentBalancedMight Have BeenSetups Author:W. S. Merwin
“The moment we turn over the soil we start poisoning it and we go on poisoning it all the way through... and there's probably not a river in the United States that doesn't have pesticide poisoning in it. The fish are dying. The seas are getting polluted. All of these things are happening. The rain forests are going. That's what the context is.” WayStatesMomentsTurnsUnitedUnited StatesSeaDyingGoes OnHappeningsRainRiversFishesForestsSoilPoisoningPesticides Author:W. S. Merwin
“The global warming is going on. These are not single cases. These are all part of a general way we've been looking at the world. As long as we look at the world that way it's going to go on. Because the idea that the important thing is for some people get rich while the rest of the people work for them is very deeply dug in...” PeopleWorldWayLooksLongImportantIdeasCasesRichGoes OnImportant ThingsGlobal WarmingGet RichVery Deep Author:W. S. Merwin
“Politically it would be terribly repressive to prevent people from having as many children as they want. But something's got to prevent it; and it won't be pleasant... We're still behaving in ways that have become disastrous... I don't think this helps us to survive... We're very species-centric... and now exist at the expense of every other form of life on Earth.” PeopleThinkingWayWantChildrenStillsHelpingWould BeEarthFormSpeciesPleasantExpenses Author:W. S. Merwin
“The attempt to live that way, the attempt to treat everybody - it fails all the time - but the attempt to treat people as equals is a good attempt. It's a very good attempt. And there have been very few governments that have come anywhere near it in the past. The Greeks began to, the Romans began to - they both failed.” PeopleWayHas BeensGovernmentPastFailingTreatsVery GoodGreek Author:W. S. Merwin
“If you can't bear what's happening to the natural world, if you can't bear the way we treat each other; if you can't bear wars, you just can't bear the whole idea of war, which is possibly unavoidable. But still, you resist it. Because you just hate our treating each other that way and causing that suffering.” IfsWorldWayStillsIdeasWarWholeSufferingHateNaturalBearsHappeningsTreatsNatural World 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
“Send me out into another life lord because this one is growing faint I do not think it goes all the way” ThinkingWayLordGrowingAnother Life Author:W. S. Merwin
“Through all of youth I was looking for you without knowing what I was looking for part memory part distance remaining mine in the ways that I learn to miss you from what we cannot hold the stars are made.” WayMemoriesMissingMinesDistance Author:W. S. Merwin
“Poetry is a way of looking at the world for the first time.” WorldWayFirstsArtFirst TimePoetry Is Author:W. S. Merwin
