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Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry Quotes

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Famous Wendell Berry Quotes

“Soil is not usually lost in slabs or heaps of magnificent tonnage. It is lost a little at a time over millions of acres by the careless acts of millions of people. It cannot be saved by heroic feats of gigantic technology, but only by millions of small acts and restraints, conditioned by small fidelities, skills, and desires. Soil loss is ultimately a cultural problem; it will be corrected only by cultural solutions.”

PeopleLittlesProblemDesireLostLossMillionsTechnologyEnvironmentSkillsSolutionsSavedSoilHeroicMagnificentRestraintCarelessFidelityFeatsAcresSmall ActsSlabs
Book:The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry
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“Community, then, is an indispensable term in any discussion of the connection between people and land. A healthy community is a form that includes all the local things that are connected by the larger, ultimately mysterious form of the Creation. In speaking of community, then, we are speaking of a complex connection not only among human beings or between humans and their homeland but also between human economy and nature, between forest or prairie and field or orchard, and between troublesome creatures and pleasant ones. All neighbors are included.”

PeopleHumansFormTermCommunityHuman BeingsEconomyLandCreationFieldsHealthyCreaturesConnectionsComplexesConnectedNeighborLocalsForestsMysteriousDiscussionPleasantIndispensableHomelandTroublesomePrairieOrchard
Book:Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays
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“History leaves no doubt that among of the most regrettable crimes committed by human beings have been committed by those human beings who thought of themselves as civilized. What, we must ask, does our civilization possess that is worth defending? One thing worth defending, I suggest, is the imperative to imagine the lives of beings who are not ourselves and are not like ourselves: animals, plants, gods, spirits, people of other countries, other races, people of the other sex, places and enemies.”

PeopleHumansDoeHas BeensCountrySpiritAsksSexHuman BeingsAnimalRaceEnemyDoubtImagineOne ThingCrimeCivilizationPlantCommittedToleranceNo DoubtCivilizedOther CountriesImperatives
Author:Wendell Berry
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