Environment Quotes

Some quotes and passages that strike me as worth sharing…

In my book, a pioneer is a man who turned all the grass upside down, strung barb-wire over the dust that was left, poisoned the water and cut down the trees, killed the Indian who owned the land, and called it progress. If I had my way, the land here would be like God made it, and none of you sons of bitches would be here at all.

-Charlie Russell (The Cowboy Artist), reportedly to a group of Montana boosters in the 1920s

Where is that sea, that forest, that spot of land; that is not ransacked to gratify our palate? The very earth burdened with our buildings; not a river, not a mountain, escapes us. Oh, that there should be such boundless desires in our little bodies!…A bull contents himself with one meadow, and one forest is enough for a thousand elephants; but the little body of a man devours more than all other living creatures.

-Seneca the Younger (Roman Statesman and Philosopher), Of a Happy Life