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James Howard Kunstler Quotes

I do all I can to maintain good health. I eat mostly plants, as Michael Pollan would say. I get a lot of exercise. I lead a purposeful daily life. I stay current with the dentist. I made the formative decision of where to live over thirty years ago when I settled in a ‘main street’ small town in upstate New York Picture Quote #1

The quality of life of European cities and towns of almost any size make life in America look not just like a joke, but a sick joke, a horror movie. But I’d rather stay involved and do what I can to make this a better place than move to the south of France and enjoy the good life Picture Quote #1

Black America surely faces an existential crisis, but not the one imagined in the condescending news media - of somehow getting non-black America to be more just and generous. The truth is, we’ve already been through that, and there is nothing left to do. We’re out of ‘affirmative actions’ of all kinds Picture Quote #1

I’m very optimistic about the future. I’m just not optimistic about the skyscraper as a building typology that is suited for the future Picture Quote #1

Human settlements are like living organisms. They must grow, and they will change. But we can decide on the nature of that growth - on the quality and the character of it - and where it ought to go. We don’t have to scatter the building blocks of our civic life all over the countryside, destroying our towns and ruining farmland Picture Quote #1

On top of the insult of destroying the geographic places we call home, the chain stores also destroyed people’s place in the order of daily life, including the duties, responsibilities, obligations, and ceremonies that prompt citizens to care for each other Picture Quote #1

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As a long-time registered Democrat who started voting in the year of Watergate, I resent being taken for a ride to the place where anything goes and nothing matters. And especially where nothing matters less than clear thinking and straight talk Picture Quote #1

History is moving the furniture around in the house of mankind just about everywhere but the U.S.A. Things have changed, except here, where people come and go through the rooms of state, and everything looks shabbier by the day, and lethargy eats away at the upholstery like an acid fog, and the walls reverberate with meaningless oratory Picture Quote #1

Neurologically, people have a need to feel oriented, to know where they are, not just in terms of a compass and not just in terms of geography, but in terms of their culture and history. To be informed about where they’re coming from and to have some glimpse towards a hopeful future Picture Quote #1

Please, please, stop referring to yourselves as ‘consumers.’ OK? Consumers are different than citizens. Consumers do not have obligations, responsibilities and duties to their fellow human beings Picture Quote #1

The faltering of our suburban living arrangement is probably certain. The response of suburbanites is not. Will they elect maniacs who promise to make America just like it was in 1997? Will there be a desperate attempt to sustain the unsustainable by authoritarian measures? Will the institutions of order and justice fail in the process? Picture Quote #1

The newspaper headlines may shout about global warming, extinctions of living species, the devastation of rain forests, and other worldwide catastrophes, but Americans evince a striking complacency when it comes to their everyday environment and the growing calamity that it represents Picture Quote #1

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Our twenty-first century economy may focus on agriculture, not information Picture Quote #1

Phoenix and Las Vegas have grim long-term prospects. On top of oil-and-gas problems, they will have terrible problems with water and the ability to produce food locally. I suppose it shows how delusional the public is, and how our institutional controls have decayed - for instance, lending standards Picture Quote #1

Life in the mid-21st century is going to be about living locally. Be prepared to be good neighbors. Be prepared to find vocations that make you useful to your neighbors and to your fellow citizens Picture Quote #1

White America is tortured by black America’s failure to thrive, and all that guilt and anxiety has only gotten worse as a substantial quota of white America loses its own footing in the middle class and plunges into the rough country of joblessness, hopelessness, and government dependency Picture Quote #1

Everything we do these days - our lust for ever more comfort, pleasure, and distraction, our refusal to engage with the mandates of reality, our fidelity to cults of technology and limitless growth, our narcissistic national exceptionalism - all of this propels us toward the realm where souls abandon all hope Picture Quote #1

I’m convinced that the Great Lakes region will be at the center of an internally-focused North American economy when the hallucination of oil-powered globalism dissolves. Places like Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit will have a new life, but not at the scale of the twentieth century Picture Quote #1

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Anything goes and nothing matters Picture Quote #1

Community is not something you have, like pizza. Now is it something you can buy. It’s a living organism based on a web of interdependencies- which is to say, a local economy. It expresses itself physically as connectedness, as buildings actively relating to each other, and to whatever public space exists, be it the street, or the courthouse or the village green Picture Quote #1

The twentieth century was about getting around. The twenty-first century will be about staying in a place worth staying in Picture Quote #1

Suburbia is not going to run on biodiesel. The easy-motoring tourist industry is not going to run on biodiesel, wind power and solar fuel Picture Quote #1

Americans are suffering so much from being in unrewarding environments that it has made us very cynical. I think that American suburbia has become a powerful generator of anxiety and depression Picture Quote #1

The model of the human habitat dictated by zoning is a formless, soul-less, centerless, demoralizing mess. It bankrupts families and townships. It disables whole classes of decent, normal citizens. It ruins the air we breathe. It corrupts and deadens our spirit Picture Quote #1

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American cities are not scaled to the energy diet of the future. They have become too large. They’re over-scaled Picture Quote #1

Suburbia is the insidious cartoon of the country house in a cartoon of the country Picture Quote #1

Ridicule is the unfortunate destiny of the ridiculous Picture Quote #1

On top of the insult of destroying the geographic places we call home, the chain stores also destroyed people’s place in the order of daily life, including the duties, responsibilities, obligations, and ceremonies that prompt citizens to care for each other Picture Quote #1

When a society is stressed, when it comes up against things that are hard to understand, you get a lot of delusional thinking Picture Quote #1

The two elements of the suburban pattern that cause the greatest problems are the extreme separation of uses and the vast distances between things Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

I do all I can to maintain good health. I eat mostly plants, as Michael Pollan would say. I get a lot of exercise. I lead a purposeful daily life. I stay current with the dentist. I made the formative decision of where to live over thirty years ago when I settled in a ‘main street’ small town in upstate New York. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) The quality of life of European cities and towns of almost any size make life in America look not just like a joke, but a sick joke, a horror movie. But I’d rather stay involved and do what I can to make this a better place than move to the south of France and enjoy the good life. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Black America surely faces an existential crisis, but not the one imagined in the condescending news media - of somehow getting non-black America to be more just and generous. The truth is, we’ve already been through that, and there is nothing left to do. We’re out of ‘affirmative actions’ of all kinds. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) I’m very optimistic about the future. I’m just not optimistic about the skyscraper as a building typology that is suited for the future. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Human settlements are like living organisms. They must grow, and they will change. But we can decide on the nature of that growth - on the quality and the character of it - and where it ought to go. We don’t have to scatter the building blocks of our civic life all over the countryside, destroying our towns and ruining farmland. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) On top of the insult of destroying the geographic places we call home, the chain stores also destroyed people’s place in the order of daily life, including the duties, responsibilities, obligations, and ceremonies that prompt citizens to care for each other. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) As a long-time registered Democrat who started voting in the year of Watergate, I resent being taken for a ride to the place where anything goes and nothing matters. And especially where nothing matters less than clear thinking and straight talk. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) History is moving the furniture around in the house of mankind just about everywhere but the U.S.A. Things have changed, except here, where people come and go through the rooms of state, and everything looks shabbier by the day, and lethargy eats away at the upholstery like an acid fog, and the walls reverberate with meaningless oratory. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Neurologically, people have a need to feel oriented, to know where they are, not just in terms of a compass and not just in terms of geography, but in terms of their culture and history. To be informed about where they’re coming from and to have some glimpse towards a hopeful future. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Please, please, stop referring to yourselves as ‘consumers.’ OK? Consumers are different than citizens. Consumers do not have obligations, responsibilities and duties to their fellow human beings. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) The faltering of our suburban living arrangement is probably certain. The response of suburbanites is not. Will they elect maniacs who promise to make America just like it was in 1997? Will there be a desperate attempt to sustain the unsustainable by authoritarian measures? Will the institutions of order and justice fail in the process? (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) The newspaper headlines may shout about global warming, extinctions of living species, the devastation of rain forests, and other worldwide catastrophes, but Americans evince a striking complacency when it comes to their everyday environment and the growing calamity that it represents. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Our twenty-first century economy may focus on agriculture, not information (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Phoenix and Las Vegas have grim long-term prospects. On top of oil-and-gas problems, they will have terrible problems with water and the ability to produce food locally. I suppose it shows how delusional the public is, and how our institutional controls have decayed - for instance, lending standards. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Life in the mid-21st century is going to be about living locally. Be prepared to be good neighbors. Be prepared to find vocations that make you useful to your neighbors and to your fellow citizens. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) White America is tortured by black America’s failure to thrive, and all that guilt and anxiety has only gotten worse as a substantial quota of white America loses its own footing in the middle class and plunges into the rough country of joblessness, hopelessness, and government dependency. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Everything we do these days - our lust for ever more comfort, pleasure, and distraction, our refusal to engage with the mandates of reality, our fidelity to cults of technology and limitless growth, our narcissistic national exceptionalism - all of this propels us toward the realm where souls abandon all hope. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) I’m convinced that the Great Lakes region will be at the center of an internally-focused North American economy when the hallucination of oil-powered globalism dissolves. Places like Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit will have a new life, but not at the scale of the twentieth century. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Anything goes and nothing matters (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Community is not something you have, like pizza. Now is it something you can buy. It’s a living organism based on a web of interdependencies- which is to say, a local economy. It expresses itself physically as connectedness, as buildings actively relating to each other, and to whatever public space exists, be it the street, or the courthouse or the village green (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) The twentieth century was about getting around. The twenty-first century will be about staying in a place worth staying in (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Suburbia is not going to run on biodiesel. The easy-motoring tourist industry is not going to run on biodiesel, wind power and solar fuel (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Americans are suffering so much from being in unrewarding environments that it has made us very cynical. I think that American suburbia has become a powerful generator of anxiety and depression (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) The model of the human habitat dictated by zoning is a formless, soul-less, centerless, demoralizing mess. It bankrupts families and townships. It disables whole classes of decent, normal citizens. It ruins the air we breathe. It corrupts and deadens our spirit. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) American cities are not scaled to the energy diet of the future. They have become too large. They’re over-scaled. (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Suburbia is the insidious cartoon of the country house in a cartoon of the country (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) Ridicule is the unfortunate destiny of the ridiculous (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) On top of the insult of destroying the geographic places we call home, the chain stores also destroyed people’s place in the order of daily life, including the duties, responsibilities, obligations, and ceremonies that prompt citizens to care for each other (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) When a society is stressed, when it comes up against things that are hard to understand, you get a lot of delusional thinking (James Howard Kunstler Quotes) The two elements of the suburban pattern that cause the greatest problems are the extreme separation of uses and the vast distances between things (James Howard Kunstler Quotes)

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