I'd rather fail at something important than succeed at something trivial.

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.

Most floods are caused by man, not weather; deforestation, levee construction, erosion, and overgrazing all result in the loss of ecosystem services.

All is connected ... no one thing can change by itself.

What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

Business is the only mechanism on the planet today powerful enough to produce the changes necessary to reverse global environments and social degradation.

The future belongs to those who understand that doing more with less is compassionate, prosperous, and enduring, and thus more intelligent, even competitive.

The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them

Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor.

Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer.

I thought of Shelley in the hospital, how she said sometimes sadness only looked like anger and judgment. Maybe fear did too.

I'm a movement by myself, but I'm a force when we're together.

My mother was a first-grade teacher, so I credit her with this lifelong intellectual curiosity I have, and love of reading and learning.

We're to love our children for who they are, not for what we want them to become.

Most of us will have more than one job in our working lives, which means we will have more than one opportunity to seek meaningful work at different stages of our own deepening humanity.

I dreamt of being an actor ever since I was young.

The finest command of language is often shown by saying nothing.

There are a million really good cigars, you gotta really float around cigars. It's not like being locked into a brand of cigarettes; at least to me it's not.

I have lived in the United States for half of my life, my entire adult life.

There was a new kind of strength in the gravity of her face, and her colors still gave her that look of deep-seated health and ardor.