David Brower

"We must be worthy of the trust the earth has placed in us."

"The most radical act is to love the earth."

"We are all stewards of the earth."

"The future is green or it is not at all."

"In every seed lies the promise of the future."

"In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future, and bond to one another."

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."

"The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play."

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."

"The battle for the environment will be fought and won in the courtrooms of our minds."

"All the world's a stage, and all the people in it merely players—but some are learning to direct."

"If the grand object of traveling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean, I venture to say that many a traveler has seen them but very few have understood them."

"Environmental movement is not about hugging trees; it's about hugging your grandchildren."

"The parks do not represent democracy; they represent the failure of democracy."

"We have to prove that growth and development are not the same thing."

"Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our system of commerce and industrialism."

"There is a conflict between what is and what could be."

"The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are destroying ourselves."

"Man's relationship to nature is more important than man's relationship to man."

"You must forge your own path through the wilderness of contradiction and doubt."

"The atomic bomb is the most dangerous thing man has ever made; the most beautiful thing he has ever made is wilderness."

"Idealism is not naiveté; it is the highest form of realism."

"In our obsession with quantifying everything, we have lost the ability to truly measure what matters."

"The Sierra Club will be remembered not for what it preserved, but for what it failed to protect."

"Art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed."

"The real wealth of nations is in the health of their ecosystems."

"We are not here to make a living; we are here to make a life."

"The future will either be green or not at all."

"Technology is no substitute for human wisdom."

"In nature there are no shortcuts; there are only long, honest roads."