environmental wisdom Quotes

A solitary American monk named Thomas Berry writes that in our relationship to nature, we have been autistic for centuries. Wrapped tightly in our own version of knowledge, we have been unreceptive to the wisdom of the natural world. To tune in again, to have the "spontaneous environmental rapport" that characterized our ancestors, will take doing something that is perfectly delightful: reimmersing ourselves in the natural world.

We have an infinite amount to learn both from nature and from each other.

For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves.

So many indigenous people have said to me that the fundamental difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that even the most open-minded westerners generally view listening to the natural world as a metaphor, as opposed to the way the world really is. Trees and rocks and rivers really do have things to say to us.

Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts . . .

Everything - even mountains, rivers, plants and trees - should be your teacher.

Those honor nature well, who teach that she can speak on everything...

The highest truths a person could discover were rooted in the natural world.

I honor the wisdom of life. I learn from life in all its forms. The tree teaches me. The sparrow and the wren sing my song. I am open to the lessons Life brings me from the earth. I learn from the wind, from the sun, from the small flowers, and from the stars. I walk without arrogance. I learn from all I encounter. I open my mind and heart to the guidance and love that come to me from the natural world.

a tree is never just a tree, it is bigger and deeper and wiser than a girl like you will ever be.

The wisdom's in the trees not the glass windows.

The volume of Nature is the book of knowledge.