Memorable Eco-Quotes – Part II: By U.S. Presidents, Writers, & Other Notable American Figures

From the very beginning of its founding, Americans have been drawn by the belief that they have it within themselves to control their own destiny. But what of their physical environment? Like their Native American Indian counterparts, many of the famous Americans quoted here come from a wide range of social, economic, and political positions but together they sound like a choir in unison – singing the praises of the American landscape and its natural resources whilst musical ironies work themselves through in the background with a thundering drum roll of polyphonic counterpoint progressions: ‘What if our physical environment is overlooked and misunderstood?’ This is what worried these celebrated Americans of the recent past – a concern that still resonates today within all of us – the security of our own environment.

1-“We won’t have a society if we destroy the environment.” – Margaret Mead, American Cultural Anthropologist, (1901-1978)
2-“The Materials of wealth are in the earth, in the seas, and in their natural and unaided productions.” – Daniel Webster, American Statesman & Senator, (1782-1852)
3-“He who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants,
the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, & Leading Transcendentalist, (1803-1882)
4-“The sky is the daily bread of eyes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
5-“I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.” – Joyce Kilmer, American Journalist, Poet, Literary Critic, Lecturer, & Editor (1886-1918)
6-“Those who contemplate the beauty of earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” – Rachel Carson, American Marine Biologist, Conservationist & Author, (1907-1964)
7-“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” – Henry David Thoreau, American Author, Poet, Philosopher, Abolitionist, Naturalist, Tax Resister, Development Critic, Surveyor, Historian, and leading Transcendentalist, (1817-1862)
8-“We can never have enough of nature.” – Henry David Thoreau
9-“In wildness is the preservation of the world.” – Henry David Thoreau
10-“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau
11-“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. “ – John Muir, Scottish-born American Naturalist, Author, Engineer, Botanist, Geologist
12-“The nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.” – 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, (1858-1919)
13-“When I hear of the destruction of a species, I feel just as if all the works of some great writer have perished.” – 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
14-“There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm.” – 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
15-“I am led to reflect how much more delightful to an undebauched mind, is the task of making improvements on the earth, than all the vain glory which can be acquired from ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of conquests.” – 1st U.S. President George Washington, (1732-1799)
16-“I am once more seated under my own vine and fig tree . . . and hope to spend the remainder of my days in peaceful retirement, making political pursuits yield to the more rational amusement of cultivating the earth.” – 1st U.S. President George Washington
17-“In the environment, every victory is temporary, every defeat permanent.” – 3rd U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826)
18-“The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.” – 3rd U.S. President Thomas Jefferson
19-“I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.” – 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, (1809-1865)
20-“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” – 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
21- “A nation that destroys it’s soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” – 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, (1882-1945)
22-“Organic buildings are the strength and lightness of the spiders’ spinning, buildings qualified by light, bred by native character to environment, married to the ground. “ – Frank Lloyd Wright,
American Architect, Interior Designer, Writer & Educator, (1867-1959)
23-“Almost every day, instead of going to school, I made for the fields, where I spent my day. “ – John James Audubon, French-American Ornithologist, Naturalist, & Painter, (1785-1851)
24-“As I grew up I was fervently desirous of becoming acquainted with Nature. “ – John James Audubon
25-“It is my intention to present – through the medium of photography – intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators.” – Ansel Adams, American Photographer & Environmentalist, (1902-1984)
26-“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. “ – Ansel Adams
27-“It’s your human environment that makes climate.” – Mark Twain, American Author & Humorist, (1835-1910)
28-“Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them.” – Mark Twain

Now for those of you who are drawn to the to the spookier aspects of nature at its haunting best
— Stay Tuned for my Next Installment of “Memorable Eco-Inspired Quotes – Part III: By Illustrious Detectives, Master Spies, Mystery Writers and Crime Novelists.”

And as Halloween is nearly upon us, I shall leave you with an eco-creepy quote from one of my very favorite American writers – Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) – The Father of the Modern Detective Story Genre:

“It was night, and the rain fell; and falling, it was rain, but, having fallen, it was blood.” – taken from ‘Silence – a Fable” written in 1837.