Best Sustainability Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 11

“Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure - but the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico, or tobacco, or some other such low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest, and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on with other reverence, because it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Burke (Illustrated)

“The Christian message, like an ecosystem, is about process. In an ecological sense, the cross symbolizes a willingness to die so that the continuation of life might be served. Now we must extend our love to the unborn if we are to serve eternal life.”

Ifs Might Christian Dies Process Eternal Messages Crosses Environmental Willingness Sustainability Our Love Eternal Life Unborn Ecological Ecosystems Continuation Continuation Of Life

Author:Wes Jackson

“Sustainability is an economic state where the demands placed upon the environment by people and commerce can be met without reducing the capacity of the environment to provide for future generations. It can also be expressed in the simple terms of an economic golden rule for the restorative economy: Leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you need, try not to harm life or the environment, make amends if you do.”

“The Captains of Industry have always counseled the rest of us "to be realistic." Let us, therefore, be realistic. Is it realistic to assume that the present economy would be just fine if only it would stop poisoning the air and water, or if only it would stop soil erosion, or if only it would stop degrading watersheds and forest ecosystems, or if only it would stop seducing children, or if only it would stop buying politicians, or if only it would give women and favored minorities an equitable share of the loot?”

Source: In the Presence of Fear: Three Essays for a Changed World

“The Federal Government has a responsibility to manage wisely those public lands and forests under its jurisdiction necessary in the interest of the public as a whole. ... In the utilization of these lands, the people are entitled to expect that their timber, minerals, streams and water supply, wildlife and recreational values should be safeguarded, improved and made available not only for this but for future generations.”

“The absolute desire of 'having more' encourages the selfishness that destroys communal bonds among the children of God. It does so because the idolatry of riches prevents the majority from sharing the goods that the Creator has made for all, and in the all-possessing minority it produces an exaggerated pleasure in these goods.”

Children Doe Made Desire Pleasure Produce Absolutes Majority Environmental Creator Riches Selfishness Minorities Goods Sustainability Idolatry Child Of God Possessing Exaggerated

Author:Oscar Romero

“The basic building block of peace and security for all peoples is economic and social security, anchored in sustainable development. It is a key to all problems. Why? Because it allows us to address all the great issues-poverty, climate, environment and political stability-as parts of the whole.”

“I report the assault on nature evidenced in coal mining that tears the tops off mountains and dumps them into rivers, sacrificing the health and lives of those in the river valleys to short-term profit, and I see a link between that process and the stock-market frenzy which scorns long-term investments-genuine savings-in favor of quick turnovers and speculative bubbles whose inevitable bursting leaves insiders with stuffed pockets and millions of small stockholders, pensioners, and employees out of work, out of luck, and out of hope.”

“The destruction of the environment, its improper or selfish use, and the violent hoarding of the Earth's resources cause grievances, conflicts and wars, precisely because they are the consequences of an inhumane concept of development.”

War Use Earth Causes Environment Development Conflict Concepts Consequence Resources Destruction Environmental Selfish Violent Sustainability Grievance Hoarding Inhumane

Author:Pope Benedict XVI

“The dialogue about sustainability is about a change in the human trajectory that will require us to rethink old assumptions and engage the large questions of the human condition that some presume to have been solved once and for all.”

Humans Has Beens Conditions Environmental Dialogue Assumption Human Condition Sustainability Trajectory

Book:The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror

Source: The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror

“The essence of the problem is about consumption, recognizing that a society that consumes one-third of the world's resources is unsustainable. This level of consumption requires constant intervention into other people's lands. That's what's going on.”

People World Problem Levels Land Resources Essence Thirds Constant Environmental Sustainability Consumption Recognizing Intervention

Author:Winona LaDuke

“The gains made by better management and technology are still being outpaced by the environmental impacts of population and economic growth. We are on an unsustainable course.”

Made Stills Courses Growth Technology Economic Gains Management Impact Environmental Population Sustainability Economic Growth Environmental Impact

Author:Klaus Topfer

“The goods of creation belong to humanity as a whole. Yet the current pace of environmental exploitation is seriously endangering the supply of certain natural resources not only for the present generation, but above all for generations to come.”

Whole Certain Humanity Natural Generations Creation Resources Environmental Currents Goods Pace Sustainability Exploitation Natural Resources

Author:Pope Benedict XVI

“The language of commerce has been engineered to describe the overt purpose of a thing, but cannot encompass fringe benefits or peripheral pleasures. It weighs the obvious against what in its terms are incomprehensible. When I drive from here to there, speed, privacy, control, and safety are easy to claim. When I walk, what happens is more vague, more ambiguous-and in many circumstances much richer. I am out in the world. It's exercise, though not so quantifiably as on a treadmill in a gym with a digital readout.”

“The people who benefit from this state of affairs have been at pains to convince us that the agricultural practices and policies that have almost annihilated the farming population have greatly benefited the population of food consumers. But more and more consumers are now becoming aware that our supposed abundance of cheap and healthful food is to a considerable extent illusory.”

People Has Beens States Pain Practice Policy Becoming Benefits Environmental Affair Population Consumers Abundance Convince Sustainability Farming Illusory Convince Us

Author:Wendell Berry

“The planetary emergency unfolding around us is, first and foremost...a crisis of thought, values, perceptions, ideas and judgments. In other words, it is a crisis of mind, which makes it a crisis of those institutions which purport to improve minds.”

Mind Firsts Ideas Values Judgment Perception Crisis Institutions Environmental Sustainability Emergencies Unfolding

Author:David W. Orr

“A person who has been seduced by the consumer value system, whose identity is dissolved in an amalgam of the accouterments trappings of mass civilization, and who has no roots in the order of being, no sense of responsibility for anything higher than his own personal survival, is a demoralized person. The system depends on this demoralization, deepens it, is in fact a projection of it into society.”

“The real work of planet-saving will be small, humble, and humbling, and (insofar as it involves love) pleasing and rewarding. Its jobs will be too many to count, too many to report, too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded, too small to make anyone rich or famous.”

Real Jobs Rich Planets Environmental Humble Saving Reports Sustainability Humbling Real Work

Book:Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays

Source: Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays

“Responsibility is something higher than my family, my country, my firm, my success. Responsibility to the order of Being, where, and only where, they will be properly judged.”

Country Order Responsibility Higher My Family Environmental Firm Judged Sustainability

Author:Vaclav Havel

“There can be no solution to the challenge of climate change that is not global. But if we can come together in partnership, we can transform today's challenge into tomorrow's opportunity - an opportunity for green growth and sustainable prosperity... we also need a strong bottom-up push from academics and opinion-shapers such as you. Universities such as yours are founts of ideas and innovation. They are furnaces of innovation and entrepreneurship. So, send forth this word.”

“There would be no call for ecological campaigning had nature not been exploited and abused. We experience the ground now bringing forth thistles as soil erosion devastates formerly arable land and deserts overtake fertile farms. Rivers and the atmosphere are polluted thoughtlessly and we are fearful of the consequences of a depleted ozone layer and the devastation of the greenhouse effect. We are not quite at home in our world, and somewhere in each of us there is a nostalgia for a paradise that has been lost.”

“To build enormous palaces, to conquer or to mimic nature, to ransack the world in order to gratify the passions of a man, is not thought of, but to add a few yards of land to your field, to plant an orchard, or enlarge a dwelling, to always be making life more comfortable and convenient, to avoid trouble, and to satisfy the smallest wants without effort and almost without cost. These are small objects, but the soul clings to them; it dwells upon them closely and day by day, till they at last shut out the rest of the world and sometimes intervene between itself and heaven.”

“To sustain an environment suitable for man, we must fight on a thousand battlegrounds. Despite all of our wealth and knowledge, we cannot create a redwood forest, a wild river, or a gleaming seashore.”

Men Fighting Wealth Environment Thousand Rivers Environmental Forests Despite Sustainability Suitable Redwoods Battleground Seashore

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966

“Unrestrained automobility, hedonism, individualism, and conspicuous consumption cannot be sustained because they take more than they give back. A spiritually impoverished world cannot be sustained because meaninglessness, anomie, and despair will corrode the desire to be sustained and the belief that humanity is worth sustaining. But these are the very things that distinguish the modern age from its predecessors, Genuine sustainability, in other words, will come not from superficial changes but from a deeper process akin to humankind growing up to a fuller stature.”

“We are challenged to develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution. The world in which we live is geographically one.”

World Feels Individual Nations Sleep Revolution Perspective Environmental Sustainability

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We are now, measurably, reducing the availability of these life-supporting goods which we can think of (though only on the conditions of good health and good care) as self-renewing or "sustainable." We are also destroying rapidly the supplies of the fossil fuels, which are limited and not renewable, and on which we have become totally dependent.”

Thinking Self Care Conditions Environmental Fuel Dependent Goods Destroying Sustainability Fossils Reducing Supplies Good Health Fossil Fuel Availability

Book:The Way of Ignorance: And Other Essays

Source: The Way of Ignorance: And Other Essays

“We continually make decisions in private which affect the commonweal, as the ecologists (to take but one example) have shown us. When I keep my house warmer than it needs to be, I consume fuel which might help someone else keep warm, or keep a job. When the food I eat is high on the protein chain I contribute to a maldistribution of protein around the world. When I teach my children to be primarily concerned with private gain, I diminish the ranks of public leadership in the rising generation.”

“We have reached a point where the value we do add to our economy is now being outweighed by the value we are removing, not only from future generations in terms of diminished resources, but from ourselves in terms of unlivable cities, deadening jobs, deteriorating health, and rising crime. In biological terms, we have become a parasite and are devouring our host.”

Jobs Values Term Cities Economy Generations Crime Resources Add Environmental Rising Host Sustainability Future Generation Parasites Devouring Deteriorating

Author:Paul Hawken

“We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.”

People Way Earth Suffering Causes Healing Economy Rich Environmental Stealing Assets Sustainability Exploitation Exploits Restoration Get Rich

Author:Paul Hawken

“We know what we have to do. And we know how to do it. If we fail to convert our self-destructing economy into one that is environmentally sustainable, future generations will be overwhelmed by environmental degradation and social disintegration. Simply stated, if our generation does not turn things around, our children may not have the option of doing so.”

“We must act now and wake up to our moral obligations. The poor and vulnerable are members of God's family and are the most severely affected by droughts, high temperatures, the flooding of coastal cities, and more severe and unpredictable weather events resulting from climate change. We, who should have been responsible stewards preserving our vulnerable, fragile planet home, have been wantonly wasteful through our reckless consumerism, devouring irreplaceable natural resources.”

“We need to be accountable to God's family. Once we start living in a way that is people-friendly to all of God's family, we will also be environment-friendly.”

People Way Needs Environment Environmental Friendly Sustainability

Author:Desmond Tutu

“We recognize that our progress as a species does not have to be defined in terms of wealth or material and physical growth any more than our progress as individuals has to be defined in terms of physical growth. Physical growth of the body reaches a limit, but the character and the soul of the individual continues to grow, or at least has a chance to continue, often to our last breath. It is simple minded to define our well being in material terms, when that well-being has an aesthetic dimension, and intellectual dimension, a moral dimension.”

“The specific danger is us; we are rampant; this earth is our only friend; we are destroying it increment by increment at a horrific rate. We must understand that we can't buy it back.”

Earth Danger Environmental Rate Destroying Sustainability Horrific

Author:William Kittredge

“We will instead have to measure our economy by the health of the ecosystems and human communities where we do our work.”

Humans Community Economy Environmental Sustainability Ecosystems

Book:Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition

Source: Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition

“What does our generation owe to generations yet unborn? ...there is an order in the universe which must be respected, and... the human person, endowed with the capability of choosing freely, has a grave responsibility to preserve this order for the well-being of future generations.”

Humans Wells Persons Doe Order Universe Responsibility Generations Environmental Graves Well Being Preserves Capability Sustainability Future Generation Unborn Our Generation Order In The Universe

Author:Pope John Paul II

“What is urgently needed is a bold new move from a consumer economy to a conserver economy in all of the developed countries, and particularly in the United States.”

Country States Moving United United States Economy Needed Environmental Consumers Sustainability Developed Country

Book:Richard Foster's treasury of Christian discipline

Source: Richard Foster's treasury of Christian discipline

“It is better to buy from a small, privately owned local store than from a chain store. It is better to buy a good product than a bad one. Do not buy anything you don't need. Do as much as you can for yourself. If you cannot do something for yourself, see if you have a neighbor who can do it for you. Do everything you can to see that your money stays as long as possible in the local community.”

Ifs Needs Long Can Do Community Products Environmental Stores Neighbor Locals Chains Sustainability Local Community

Book:Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays

Source: Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays

“When we conduct agriculture, we are, therefore, altering the ecological arrangement that was responsible for our genesis as a species. I think that this is the reason that this alienation has allowed us to see and regard land mostly as a resource. So we have created a problem for ourselves from the word "go," for land is not a resource any more than humans are resources.”

Thinking Humans Reason Problem Land Resources Responsible Regard Species Environmental Sustainability Agriculture Arrangements Alienation Genesis Ecological

Author:Wes Jackson

“When we talk about global crisis, or a crisis of humanity, we cannot blame a few politicians, a few fanatics, or a few troublemakers. The whole of humanity has a responsibility because it is our business, human business. I call this a sense of universal responsibility. That is a crucial point.”

Humans Whole Humanity Responsibility Politician Universal Crisis Blame Environmental Crucial Sustainability Fanatics Troublemaker

Author:Dalai Lama

“Yes, the South-becoming always poorer-and the North-becoming always richer ...Richer, too in the resources of weapons with which the superpowers and blocs can mutually threaten each other. In the light of Christ's words (Mt. 25), this poor South will judge the rich North. And the poor people and poor nations-poor in different ways, not only lacking food, but also deprived of freedom and other human right-will judge those people who take these goods away from them, amassing to themselves the imperialist monopoly and political supremacy at the expense of others.”

“Your children should have it impressed upon them that their adult life-style will bear very little resemblance to yours and that they should now be acquiring knowledge, skills, values, and tastes that will sustain them in less materially affluent circumstances. On the other hand, the fresh insights and imaginations of your children may help you find a viable future while there's still time.”

“The Lockean assumption that if we put our labor to it then it becomes our own is totally fallacious. We have to figure out how to leave things alone, and build an economic system that's not built on a linear model, but instead on a cyclical model, because that's the natural world - it's cyclical and not linear. That is going to take a lot of transformation.”

Ifs World Natural Economic Figures Models Built Labor Transformation Environmental Assumption Sustainability Natural World Linear Economic Systems

Author:Winona LaDuke

“The character of a whole society is the cumulative result of the countless small actions, day in and day out, of millions of persons. Who we are as a society, is the synergistic accumulation of who we are as individuals... Small changes that seem insignificant in isolation can be great contributions when they are simultaneously undertaken by many others.”

Persons Whole Character Seems Action Individual Results Millions Environmental Contribution Who We Are Isolation Sustainability Insignificant Accumulation Cumulative Small Changes Small Actions

Author:Duane Elgin

“... placing economic activity in the context of the whole earth requires attention to the question of scale. Bigger is obviously not better, so the optimum scale of human economy in relation to the total economy becomes basically a question of sustainability. When the effects of the economy on the environment undercut the possibility of its own continuance, the scale is too large.”

Humans Whole Earth Attention Economy Environment Economic Effects Possibility Activity Bigger Relation Environmental Scales Sustainability Continuance Optimum Undercut

Book:Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy

Source: Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy

“Criticism of growth arose with the discovery that growth beyond a certain point is destructive of the earth. We are already using resources much faster than they can be replenished. We are producing wastes much faster than nature's sinks can process them. The growth economy will end. The only questions are when its end will come, and whether humanity will be able to survive its demise.”

Ends Able Earth Certain Humanity Process Growth Economy Waste Discovery Resources Criticism Environmental Faster Destructive Sustainability Demise Using Resources

Book:Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy

Source: Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy

“Consider the willful scorching of the earth, over-fishing, wasteful hunting, excessive and dangerous recycling of resources, and other similar "injustices" against the ways of nature share in the responsibility for this ecological spiraling down.”

Way Earth Responsibility Share Dangerous Resources Environmental Injustice Fishing Hunting Sustainability Ecological Recycling Scorching

Author:Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople

“The sustainable alternative is one in which smaller and smaller regions produce more and more of the goods they need closer to where they are consumed. These economies will contribute little to the greenhouse effect and will survive the exhaustion of oil.”

Needs Littles Economy Effects Produce Environmental Oil Alternatives Regions Goods Sustainability Consumed Exhaustion Greenhouses

Book:Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy

Source: Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy

“People of conscience in our leadership in Washington have been scared off by the right and the fossil fuel lobbies. They won't even use the term "sustainability" or "climate change" in an energy bill, which is ludicrous on its face. It completely ignores the elephant in the room that we're all dealing with. The average American doesn't even believe climate change is real, they think it's all a hoax.”

“We [H&M] believe that growth, profit and sustainability are not contradictory. Our ambition is to be a fair and profitable company, because otherwise we couldn't open any new stores, we couldn't produce new designs and no new jobs would be created. H&M would soon cease to exist.”

Believe Would Be Jobs Growth Company Design Produce Ambition Fairs Profit Stores Cease Sustainability Profitable Contradictory New Job

Author:Karl-Johan Persson

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Sustainability Quotes