“Our love could change the orbit of the earth. So, if a meteor ever comes hurtling towards earth with the guarantee of destruction, top scientists may call on us to, well, you know, do it like crazy for the sake of humankind.” IfsKnowsLoveWellsMayEarthCrazyDestructionScientistSakeGuaranteesHumankindOur LoveOrbitMeteors Author:Dalai Lama
“Today the world faces a single man armed with weapons of mass destruction, manifesting an aggressive, bullying attitude, who may well plunge the world into chaos and bloodshed if he miscalculates. This person, belligerent, arrogant, and sure of himself, truly is the most dangerous person on Earth. The problem is that his name is George W. Bush, and he is our president.” IfsMenWorldWellsMayPersonsProblemTodayEarthAmericaFacesNamesPresidentAttitudeDangerousWeaponsMassDestructionChaosBullyingManifestAggressiveArrogantWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionPlungeBloodshedSingle Man Author:Jack Balkin
“It may be that ... when the advance of destructive weapons enables everyone to kill everybody else nobody will want to kill anyone at all. [Referring to the hydrogen bomb.]” WantMayScienceWeaponsDestructionBombsDestructiveReferringHydrogenHydrogen Bomb Author:Winston Churchill
“Our attitude towards plants is a singularly narrow one. If we see any immediate utility in a plant we foster it. If for any reason we find its presence undesirable or merely a matter of indifference, we may condemn it to destruction forthwith.” IfsMayMatterReasonDifferencesAttitudeDestructionPlantIndifferenceWeedUtilityUndesirable Book:Silent Spring Source: Silent Spring
“The great wilds of our country, once held to be boundless and inexhaustible, are being rapidly invaded and overrun in every direction, and everything destructible in them is being destroyed. How far destruction may go it is not easy to guess. Every landscape, low and high, seems doomed to be trampled and harried. Even the sky is not safe from scath-blurred and blackened whole summers together with the smoke of fires that devour the woods.” MayCountryWholeSeemsTogetherEasyFireSkySafeSummerLowsDestructionEnvironmentalWoodsDestroyedOur CountrySmokeLandscapeDoomedBoundless Book:The Writings of John Muir: Steep trails Source: The Writings of John Muir: Steep trails
“Our politics and science have never mastered the fact that people need more than to understand their obligation to one another and to the earth; they need also the feeling of such obligation, and the feeling can come only within the patterns of familiarity. A nation of urban nomads, such as we have become, may simply be unable to be enough disturbed by its destruction of the ecological health of the land, because the people's dependence on the land, though it has been expounded to them over and over again in general terms, is not immediate to their feelings.” PeopleNeedsMayHas BeensEnoughFactsFeelingsEarthNationsTermLandDestructionPatternsObligationUrbanDependenceFamiliarityDisturbedEcologicalNomad Author:Wendell Berry
“The news today about 'Atomic bombs' is so horrifying one is stunned. The utter folly of these lunatic physicists to consent to do such work for war-purposes: calmly plotting the destruction of the world! Such explosives in men's hands, while their moral and intellectual status is declining, is about as useful as giving out firearms to all inmates of a gaol and then saying that you hope 'this will ensure peace'. But one good thing may arise out of it, I suppose, if the write-ups are not overheated: Japan ought to cave in. Well we're in God's hands. But He does not look kindly on Babel-builders.” IfsMenWorldGivingWritingWellsLooksMayDoeWarHandsTodayPurposeMoralOughtNewsIntellectualDestructionGood ThingsAriseFollyBombsJapanConsentCavesPhysicistLunaticBuilderFirearmsExplosivesAtomic BombStunnedInmatesBabel Author:J. R. R. Tolkien