There can be no doubt that a society rooted in the soil is more stable than one rooted in pavements.

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.

Land is not merely soil, it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants and animals.

Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left.

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?

There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.

The first law of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts

To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.

The oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.

I don't teach lies, but I do not teach all I know is true.

They want your sons.”“My–? But I don’t… ew!

It was as if someone had taken a tiny bead of pure life and decking it as lightly as possible with down and feathers, had set it dancing and zigzagging to show us the true nature of life.

artists often lie behind on the field long after the art combine, the broad-bladed harvester of informed criticism, has mowed, bailed, and stored the crop.

Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image of God, and some defects to show that she is only His image.

The Swiss are a neat and an industrious people, none of whom is under seventy-five years of age.

If I see a cool chick in the street, I'll watch her going by, won't I?

I have come, Sire, to complain of one of your subjects who has been so audacious as to kick me in the belly.

It is hard to resist a flatterer who gets it right.

I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.