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Quote by Frederick Lenz

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Frederick Lenz
Frederick Lenz

Frederick Lenz was an American author known for his profound understanding and unique insights into Zen Buddhism. His works blended Zen philosophy with modern life, resonating with readers worldwide. more

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“A continent ages quickly once we come. The natives live in harmony with it. But the foreigner destroys, cuts down the trees, drains the water, so that the water supply is altered, and in a short time the soil, once the sod is turned under, is cropped out and, next, it starts to blow away as it has blown away in every old country and as I had seen it start to blow in Canada. The earth gets tired of being exploited.”

CountryAgeEarthNextWaterCuttingTreeLandHarmonyTiredBlowSoilCanadaContinentsForeignersAlteredDrainsShort TimeBlown AwaySod
Book:The Hemingway Collection
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“After long centuries, agrarian civilization is weakening. Is sufficient attention being devoted to the arrangement and improvement of the life of the country people, whose inferior and at times miserable economic situation provokes the flight to the unhappy crowded conditions of the city outskirts, where neither employment nor housing awaits them?”

PeopleLongCountryCitiesAttentionSituationEconomicLandConditionsCenturyCivilizationImprovementUnhappyFlightEmploymentMiserableSufficientDevotedInferiorsProvokingArrangementsHousingCrowdedWeakening
Author:Pope Paul VI
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“But in fact as knowledge expands globally it is being lost locally. This is the paramount truth of the modern history of rural places everywhere in the world. And it is the gravest problem of land use: Modern humans typically are using places whose nature they have never known and whose history they have forgotten; thus ignorant, they almost necessarily abuse what they use.”

WorldHumansFactsUseProblemLostKnownModernLandAbuseForgottenIgnorantParamountModern HistoryLand Use
Author:Wendell Berry
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“Dispossessed peasants slash-and-burn their way into the rain forests of Latin America, hungry nomads turn their herds out into fragile African rangeland, reducing it to desert, and small farmers in India and the Philippines cultivate steep slopes, exposing them to the erosive powers of rain. Perhaps half the world's billion-plus absolute poor are caught in a downward spiral of ecological and economic impoverishment. In desperation, they knowingly abuse the land, salvaging the present by savaging the future.”

WorldWayAmericaTurnsPoorHalfEconomicLandRainAbuseIndiaAbsolutesCaughtBillionsHungryForestsDesertPlusLatinFarmersFragileDesperationReducingPeasantsHerdsLatin AmericaEcologicalExposingSpiralsPhilippinesSlopesSteepNomadDownward Spiral
Author:Alan Thein Durning
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“During the last 17 years... I have been working at the restoration of a once exhausted hillside. Its scars are now healed over, though still visible, and this year it has provided abundant pasture, more than in any year since we have owned it. But to make it as good as it is now has taken 17 years. If I had been a millionaire or if my family had been starving, it would still have taken 17 years. It can be better than it is now, but that will take longer. For it to live fully in its own responsibility, as it did before bad use ran it down, may take hundreds of years.”

IfsYearsMayHas BeensStillsUseLastsResponsibilityTakenLandMy FamilyRanVisibleScarExhaustedStarvingHealedMillionaireRestorationPastures
Author:Wendell Berry
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“Food security is an authentically human requirement. Guaranteeing it for present and future generations also means safeguarding ourselves against the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources. Indeed, the process of consumption and waste seems to overlook any concern for ... biodiversity, which is so important for agriculture.”

HumansMeanImportantSeemsProcessNaturalGenerationsLandSecurityWasteResourcesConcernConsumptionAgricultureExploitationRequirementsFuture GenerationNatural ResourcesBiodiversityFood SecuritySafeguarding
Author:Pope Benedict XVI
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“Hasidism has a tradition that one of man's purposes is to assist God in the work of redemption by "hallowing" the things of creation. By a tremendous heave of his spirit, the devout man frees the divine sparks trapped in the mute things of time; he uplifts the forms and moments of creation, bearing them aloft into that rare air and hallowing fire in which all clays must shatter and burst. Keeping the subsoil world under trees in mind, in intelligence, is the least I can do.”

MenWorldMindI CanMomentsFormSpiritPurposeCan DoFireAirTreeLandCreationDivineTraditionRedemptionUpliftingSparksTrappedClayMute
Book:PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK
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