Environmental Philosophy

“The notion of following your passion is worth indulging. Your passion is your source of power. To live really a full life, you need to follow where it leads...in defiance of all things conventional perhaps. And of course it has its price. You have to know that going in. But the price you pay, in my opinion, is not worth the time of day to think about. It is so important not to knee pad around the world. You should never bow down to anything but those you love and respect. Ever for anything.”

— Doug Peacock

“Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination, never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

— Lord Chesterfield

“By the law of nature these things are common to mankind-the air, running water and consequently the shores of the sea.”

— Institute of Justinian 2.1.1

"The rough outline of natural right or liberty must submit to the chisel of the mason that it may enter symmetrically into the special structure."

— Chief Justice Faircloth, Mizell v. McGowan, 120 NC 134 (1987)

"All persons are by nature free and independent, and have certain natural and unalienable rights among which are those enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and of pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness."

— Article 1, NJ Constitution

"All property in this country is held under the implied obligation that the owner’s use of it shall not be injurious to the community."

— Mugler v. Kansas 123 US at 665

"There does not appear to be any difference in principle between the extent of the duty on him who brings cattle on his lands to keep them in, and the extent of the duty imposed on him who brings on his land water, filth, or stenches, or any other thing which will, if it escapes, naturally do damage, to prevent their escaping and injuring his neighbor."

— Rylands v. Fletcher - Exchequer Chamber: L.R. 1 Exch. 265 (1866)

"We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible because we are final."

— Brown v. Allen 344 US 443, 540

"Live all the earth; every ray of God’s light, every grain of sand or blade of grass, every living thing. If you love the earth enough, you will know the divine mystery."

- Dostoevsky

"The rough outline of natural right or liberty must submit to the chisel of the mason that it may enter symmetrically into the special structure."

— Mizell v. McGowan 1120 NC 134

"Man has too long forgotten that the earth was given to him usufruct alone, not for consumption, still less profligate waste."

— George Perkins March; “Of Man and Nature” 1864

"Environmental protection is a public interest that does not conflict with economic prosperity. Relaxing environmental protection will only mean more Americans will breathe dirty air, drink contaminated water, and have to travel farther to see a bird while they search for menial jobs at half"

"In times of unrest, whether caused by crime or racial conflict or fear of internal subversion, the basic law and values that it represents, may appear unrealistic or extravagant to some. But the value were those of the authors of our fundamental constitutional concepts."

— Coolidge v. New Hampshire.

"There is a whole and entire generation right now who never knew anything that didn’t come out of this tube! The tube is gospel! This tube is the ultimate revelation! This tube can make or break presidents, popes and prime ministers. This tube is the most awesome goddamned force in the whole godless world. So listen to me! Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamned amusement park, that is what television is! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats and storytellers, singers and dancers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers and football players.... "

— Howard Beale from movie Network.

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."

— Henry Beston

"The voices of the inanimate object...should not be stilled...before the priceless bits of America (such as a valley, an alpine meadow, a river or a lake) are forever lost or are so transformed as to be reduced to the eventual rubble of urban environment, the voice of the existing beneficiaries of these environmental wonders should be heard. Perhaps they will not win. Perhaps the bulldozers of “progress” will plow under all the aesthetic wonders of this beautiful land. That is not the present question. The sole questions is who has standing to be heard? Those who hike into the Appalachian Trail into Sunfish Pond, New Jersey, and camp or sleep there, or the Allagash in Main, or climb the Guadalupes in West Texas, or who canoe and portage the Quetico Superior in Minnesota, certainly should have standing to defend these natural wonders before the courts or the agencies, though they live 3,000 miles away."

- William O. Douglas dissent in Mineral King Case

"We have virtually no forestry, and mighty little range management, wildflower management, pollution control, or erosion control being practiced voluntary by private land owners. In many instances the abuse of private land is worse than it was before we started. If you don’t believe that, watch the strawstacks burn on the Canadian prairies; watch the fertile mud flowing down the Rio Grande; watch the gullies climb the hillsides in the Palouse in the Ozarks, in the riverbreaks of southern Iowa and western Wisconsin....? There is still no stigma in the possession of a gullied farm, a wrecked forest, or a polluted stream, provided the project is money making"

- Round River by Aldo Leopold