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Wendell Berry Quotes

We are alive within mystery, by miracle... We have more than we can know. We know more than we can say Picture Quote #1

There is much good work to be done by every one of us and we must begin to do it Picture Quote #1

During the last 17 years... I have been working at the restoration of a once exhausted hillside. Its scars are now healed over, though still visible, and this year it has provided abundant pasture, more than in any year since we have owned it. But to make it as good as it is now has taken 17 years. If I had been a millionaire or if my family had been starving, it would still have taken 17 years. It can be better than it is now, but that will take longer. For it to live fully in its own responsibility, as it did before bad use ran it down, may take hundreds of years Picture Quote #1

Our politics and science have never mastered the fact that people need more than to understand their obligation to one another and to the earth; they need also the feeling of such obligation, and the feeling can come only within the patterns of familiarity. A nation of urban nomads, such as we have become, may simply be unable to be enough disturbed by its destruction of the ecological health of the land, because the people’s dependence on the land, though it has been expounded to them over and over again in general terms, is not immediate to their feelings Picture Quote #1

When there are enough people on the land to use it but not enough to husband it, then the wildness of the soil that we call fertility begins to diminish, and the soil itself begins to flee from us in water and wind Picture Quote #1

If in the human economy, a squash in the field is worth more than a bushel of soil, that does not mean that food is more valuable than soil; it means simply that we do not know how to value the soil. In its complexity and its potential longevity, the soil exceeds our comprehension; we do not know how to place a just market value on it, and we will never learn how. Its value is inestimable; we must value it, beyond whatever price we put on it, by respecting it Picture Quote #1

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The damages of our present agriculture all come from the determination to use the life of the soil as if it were an extractable resource like coal Picture Quote #1

The more local and settled a culture, the better it stays put, the less the damage. It is the foreigner whose road of excess leads to a desert... a man with a machine and inadequate culture... is a pestilence. He shakes more than he can hold Picture Quote #1

I go among trees and sit still. All my stirring becomes quiet around me like circles on water Picture Quote #1

Hunger is a powerful persuader if it happens, and it’s conceivable that it could happen. Country people have always known this Picture Quote #1

We must see that it is foolish, sinful and suicidal to destroy the health of nature for the sake of an economy that is really not an economy at all but merely a financial system, one that is unnatural, undemocratic, sacrilegious, and ephemeral Picture Quote #1

The river is of the earth and it is free. It is rigorously embanked and bound, and yet it is free. To hell with restraint, it says, I have got to be going. It will grind out its dams. It will go over or around them. They will become pieces Picture Quote #1

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We don’t know how to use energy or what to use it for. And we cannot restrain ourselves. Our time is characterized as much by the abuse and waste of human energy as it is by the abuse and waste of fossil fuel energy Picture Quote #1

You can’t be a critic by simply being a griper. One has also to search out the examples of good work Picture Quote #1

It’s mighty hard right now to think of anything that’s precious that isn’t endangered. There are no sacred and unsacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places. My belief is that the world and our life in it are conditional gifts Picture Quote #1

We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it. And to take good care of it we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it Picture Quote #1

Action can only be understood in relation to place; only by staying in place can the imagination conceive or understand action in terms of consequence, of cause and effect. The meaning of action in time is inseparable from its meaning in place Picture Quote #1

The most available example of how poetry works for a poet is yourself, and yet you’ll probably be the last one to know exactly how you’re serving the art and how the art is serving you Picture Quote #1

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You can’t live entirely alone. You have to have some kind of a support system Picture Quote #1

The aim of industrialization has always been to replace people with machines or other technology, to make the cost of production as low as possible, to sell the product as high as possible, and to move the wealth into fewer and fewer hands Picture Quote #1

Unexpected wonders happen, not on schedule, or when you expect or want them to happen, but if you keep hanging around, they do happen Picture Quote #1

The ecological principle in agriculture is to connect the genius of the place, to fit the farming to the farm Picture Quote #1

American agriculture is badly in need of diversity. Another threat to the food system of course is the likelihood that petroleum is not going to get any cheaper Picture Quote #1

There are lots of bad things that can happen to a food economy that’s both extensive and centralized. There’s no substitute for petroleum. To have a growth economy based on a declining fuel supply is bound to be stressful Picture Quote #1

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Any religion has to have a practice. When you let it go so far from practice that it just becomes a matter of talk something bad happens Picture Quote #1

We can grow good wheat and make good bread only if we understand that we do not live by bread alone Picture Quote #1

And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present Picture Quote #1

We will instead have to measure our economy by the health of the ecosystems and human communities where we do our work Picture Quote #1

I lack the peace of simple things. I am never wholly in place. I find no peace or grace. We sell the world to buy fire, our way lighted by burning men Picture Quote #1

There are some things the arrogant mind does not see; it is blinded by its vision of what it desires Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

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Text Quotes

We are alive within mystery, by miracle... We have more than we can know. We know more than we can say (Wendell Berry Quotes) There is much good work to be done by every one of us and we must begin to do it (Wendell Berry Quotes) During the last 17 years... I have been working at the restoration of a once exhausted hillside. Its scars are now healed over, though still visible, and this year it has provided abundant pasture, more than in any year since we have owned it. But to make it as good as it is now has taken 17 years. If I had been a millionaire or if my family had been starving, it would still have taken 17 years. It can be better than it is now, but that will take longer. For it to live fully in its own responsibility, as it did before bad use ran it down, may take hundreds of years (Wendell Berry Quotes) Our politics and science have never mastered the fact that people need more than to understand their obligation to one another and to the earth; they need also the feeling of such obligation, and the feeling can come only within the patterns of familiarity. A nation of urban nomads, such as we have become, may simply be unable to be enough disturbed by its destruction of the ecological health of the land, because the people’s dependence on the land, though it has been expounded to them over and over again in general terms, is not immediate to their feelings (Wendell Berry Quotes) When there are enough people on the land to use it but not enough to husband it, then the wildness of the soil that we call fertility begins to diminish, and the soil itself begins to flee from us in water and wind (Wendell Berry Quotes) If in the human economy, a squash in the field is worth more than a bushel of soil, that does not mean that food is more valuable than soil; it means simply that we do not know how to value the soil. In its complexity and its potential longevity, the soil exceeds our comprehension; we do not know how to place a just market value on it, and we will never learn how. Its value is inestimable; we must value it, beyond whatever price we put on it, by respecting it (Wendell Berry Quotes) The damages of our present agriculture all come from the determination to use the life of the soil as if it were an extractable resource like coal (Wendell Berry Quotes) The more local and settled a culture, the better it stays put, the less the damage. It is the foreigner whose road of excess leads to a desert... a man with a machine and inadequate culture... is a pestilence. He shakes more than he can hold (Wendell Berry Quotes) I go among trees and sit still. All my stirring becomes quiet around me like circles on water (Wendell Berry Quotes) Hunger is a powerful persuader if it happens, and it’s conceivable that it could happen. Country people have always known this (Wendell Berry Quotes) We must see that it is foolish, sinful and suicidal to destroy the health of nature for the sake of an economy that is really not an economy at all but merely a financial system, one that is unnatural, undemocratic, sacrilegious, and ephemeral (Wendell Berry Quotes) The river is of the earth and it is free. It is rigorously embanked and bound, and yet it is free. To hell with restraint, it says, I have got to be going. It will grind out its dams. It will go over or around them. They will become pieces (Wendell Berry Quotes) We don’t know how to use energy or what to use it for. And we cannot restrain ourselves. Our time is characterized as much by the abuse and waste of human energy as it is by the abuse and waste of fossil fuel energy (Wendell Berry Quotes) You can’t be a critic by simply being a griper. One has also to search out the examples of good work (Wendell Berry Quotes) It’s mighty hard right now to think of anything that’s precious that isn’t endangered. There are no sacred and unsacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places. My belief is that the world and our life in it are conditional gifts (Wendell Berry Quotes) We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it. And to take good care of it we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it (Wendell Berry Quotes) Action can only be understood in relation to place; only by staying in place can the imagination conceive or understand action in terms of consequence, of cause and effect. The meaning of action in time is inseparable from its meaning in place (Wendell Berry Quotes) The most available example of how poetry works for a poet is yourself, and yet you’ll probably be the last one to know exactly how you’re serving the art and how the art is serving you (Wendell Berry Quotes) You can’t live entirely alone. You have to have some kind of a support system (Wendell Berry Quotes) The aim of industrialization has always been to replace people with machines or other technology, to make the cost of production as low as possible, to sell the product as high as possible, and to move the wealth into fewer and fewer hands (Wendell Berry Quotes) Unexpected wonders happen, not on schedule, or when you expect or want them to happen, but if you keep hanging around, they do happen (Wendell Berry Quotes) The ecological principle in agriculture is to connect the genius of the place, to fit the farming to the farm (Wendell Berry Quotes) American agriculture is badly in need of diversity. Another threat to the food system of course is the likelihood that petroleum is not going to get any cheaper (Wendell Berry Quotes) There are lots of bad things that can happen to a food economy that’s both extensive and centralized. There’s no substitute for petroleum. To have a growth economy based on a declining fuel supply is bound to be stressful (Wendell Berry Quotes) Any religion has to have a practice. When you let it go so far from practice that it just becomes a matter of talk something bad happens (Wendell Berry Quotes) We can grow good wheat and make good bread only if we understand that we do not live by bread alone (Wendell Berry Quotes) And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present (Wendell Berry Quotes) We will instead have to measure our economy by the health of the ecosystems and human communities where we do our work (Wendell Berry Quotes) I lack the peace of simple things. I am never wholly in place. I find no peace or grace. We sell the world to buy fire, our way lighted by burning men (Wendell Berry Quotes) There are some things the arrogant mind does not see; it is blinded by its vision of what it desires (Wendell Berry Quotes)

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