Great Throughts Treasury

"The enduring value of the relationship to the land might best be measured by the extent to which it evolves beyond self-interest. All healthy relationships entail sacrifice and are never solely about what makes one person feel good, but are about what's also good for someone else. Relationship implies a responsibility that goes beyond one's own dreams."

"Our relentless desire for things ultimately devours the land while silencing stories that may be important for us to hear. In losing our connection to the land, we also lose an important source of information about how we might live differently. We are left with fewer and fewer sources of meaning for ourselves."

"The path to healing is through the act of land conservation, an act that in a hundred different ways shows our sense of hope and affinity by reconnecting us with the life around us. It's a rekindling of what is most meaningful inside each of us. Conservation is a way for humans to reengage with the world, a way to extend our best definitions of humanity."

"The enduring value of the relationship to the land might be best measured by the extent to which it evolves beyond self-interest. All healthy relationships entail sacrifice and are never solely about what makes one person feel good, but are about what’s also good for someone else. Relationship implies a responsibility that goes beyond one’s own dreams."

"Sprawl is gobbling up the American countryside at 365 acres per hour. Over three million acres of forests, farms, and wetlands - the places that inspire our remembering - will be paved over this year alone. There are more malls in America than high schools. This changes who we are."