“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
“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 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
“Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, you've lost the whole thing.” IfsEndsWholePoetryLostJokesPoetry IsOne Word Author:W. S. Merwin
“What I really believe is the only hopeful relation between our life and the whole of life is one of reverence and respect and of feeling at one with it. The other attitude which is the one our society is based on is devastating and it is killing the earth and it is killing us too.” BelieveWholeFeelingsEarthLife IsAttitudeOur LivesRelationKillingContemplationHopefulOur SocietyReverence Author:W. S. Merwin
