Water Quotes from Environmental Advocates
Jim Lauria
Today, on Earth Day, I thought it appropriate to post my favorite water quotes from environmental advocates…
1. “In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference.” - Rachel Carson
2. "Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own.” - John Muir
3. “Every human should have the idea of taking care of the environment, of nature, of water. So using too much or wasting water should have some kind of feeling or sense of concern. Some sort of responsibility and with that, a sense of discipline.” - Dalai Lama
4. “There has been a lot said about the sacredness of our land which is our body; and the values of our culture which is our soul; but water is the blood of our tribes, and if its life-giving flow is stopped, or it is polluted, all else will die and the many thousands of years of our communal existence will come to an end.” - Frank Tenorio
5. “There is no lack of water in the Mojave Desert unless you try to establish a city where no city should be.”- Edward Abbey
6. “Clean drinking water is one of the things that distinguishes our society. If we don’t get control of our crumbling infrastructure, we’re going to time-travel back 200 years when people got dysentery and cholera from their water.” - Wenonah Hauter
7. “No water, no life. No blue, no green.” - Sylvia Earle
8. "Some people love the ocean. Some people fear it. I love it, hate it, fear it, respect it, resent it, cherish it, loathe it, and frequently curse it. It brings out the best in me and sometimes the worst." - Roz Savage
9. “Humans build their societies around consumption of fossil water long buried in the earth, and these societies, being based on temporary resources, face the problem of being temporary themselves.” - Charles Bowden
10. “What is the vitality and necessity of clean water? Ask the man who is ill, and who is lifting his lips to the cup. Ask the forest.” - Mary Oliver
11. "Water is a pioneer which the settler follows, taking advantage of its improvements." - Henry David Thoreau
12. “As humans, water makes up seventy percent of our bodies. Water is who we are at our most elemental level. We must learn to respect water, as it is us.“ - J. Michael Read
13. “Gentlemen, you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply the land.” - John Wesley Powell
14. “Rain is a blessing when it falls gently on parched fields, turning the earth green, causing the birds to sing.” - Donald Worster, “Meeting the Expectations of the Land”
15. “Battles over water in the West are always about something more. At their most elemental, they are about survival.” - Bettina Boxall
16. "We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations." - David Brower
17. “Civilization has been a permanent dialogue between human beings and water.” - Paolo Lugari
18. “To the lost man, to the pioneer penetrating a new country, to the naturalist who wishes to see the wild land at its wildest, the advice is always the same -- follow a river. The river is the original forest highway. It is nature's own Wilderness Road.” - Edwin Way Teale
19. “The quality of water and the quality of life in all its infinite forms are critical parts of the overall, ongoing health of this planet of ours, not just here in the Amazon, but everywhere.” - Sir Peter Blake
20. “The watershed is the first and last nation whose boundaries, though subtly shifting, are unarguable." - Gary Snyder
21. “The renewable resource most likely to stimulate interstate war is river water.” - Thomas Homer-Dixon
22. “The tides are in our veins, we still mirror the stars, life is your child, but there is in me Older and harder than life and more impartial, the eye that watched before there was an ocean.” - Robinson Jeffers
And from three generations of the Cousteau family…
23. "From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free." - Jacques Cousteau
24. “Clean water, the essence of life and a birthright for everyone, must become available to all people now.” - Jean-Michel Cousteau
25. "We are beginning to learn that our brains are hardwired to react positively to water and that being near it can calm and connect us, increase innovation and insight, and even heal what’s broken." - Celine Cousteau
If you have any quotes to add, please post them in the comments section.
Thanks and please check out the other posts from my series “Water Quotes from…”
Water Quotes from Scientists
Water Quotes from Funny People
Water Quotes from Women
Water Quotes from U.S. Presidents
Water Quotes from Famous People
Water Quotes from Movies and Films
Water Quotes from Chinese Teachings
Water Quotes from Song Lyrics
Water Quotes from Around the World
Water Quotes from Leonardo da Vinci