Mary Oliver Quotes

Most of us have lost that sense of unity of biosphere and humanity which would bind and reassure us all with an affirmation of beauty. Most of us do not today believe that whatever the ups and down of detail within our limited experience, the larger whole is primarily beautiful.

I think having nature be a part of people's lives helps all of us see ourselves as part of something larger.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

Look at the bark of a redwood, and you see moss. If you peer beneath the bits and pieces of the moss, you'll see toads, small insects, a whole host of life that prospers in that miniature environment. A lumberman will look at a forest and see so many board feet of lumber. I see a living city.

It is not oil or the environment, it is oil and the environment. We are living in the same world. We are not enemies.

We are eternally linked not just to each other but our environment.

I think it's really important that we understand that we share this world and we're connected to it.

The big problem of our modern society is that we feel that we are separated from the nature. But it's just the opposite. We are interrelated and our DNA is the same. And only when human beings understand that, the nature will not be obstacle.

My definition is that geo-enlightenment is understanding the interconnectedness of things.

High Alpine meadows, like their near relatives prairie, desert and certain varieties of wetland, teach us to consider the world from a fresh perspective, to open our eyes and take account of what we have missed, reminding us that, in spite of our emphasis on the visual in everyday speech, we see so very little of the world.

We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.

You want to live in harmony with nature and with each other.

We're all on-board the same planetary spaceship, but together, we can move mountains.

The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

We can at least see that the question is asked, and asked on the basis of a clear recognition that there is no way of manipulating our environment that is without cost or consequence - and thus also of a recognition that we are inextricably bound up with the destiny of our world. There is no guarantee that the world we live in will "tolerate" us indefinitely if we prove ourselves unable to live within its constraints.

For all is like an ocean, all flows and connects; touch it in one place and it echoes at the other end of the world.

The sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.

We are all part of the ecosystem.

Sometimes we meet people and are so symbiotic with them, it's as if we are one person, with one mind, one destiny

The advent of interconnectedness and of weapons of mass destruction means that, increasingly, I share a destiny with my enemy.

If we recognize the interconnectedness of the changes our planet needs, we become true solutionaries and our united power is unparalleled.

All we want, whether we are honeybees, salmon, trash-collecting ants, ponderosa pines, coyotes, human beings, or stars, is to love and be loved, to be accepted, cherished, and celebrated simply for being who we are. Is that so very difficult?

To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together.

Man is not above nature, but in nature.