I have a friend who feels sometimes that the world is hostile to human life--he says it chills us and kills us. But how could we be were it not for this planet that provided our very shape? Two conditions--gravity and a livable temperature range between freezing and boiling--have given us fluids and flesh. The trees we climb and the ground we walk on have given us five fingers and toes. The "place" (from the root plat, broad, spreading, flat) gave us far-seeing eyes, the streams and breezes gave us versatile tongues and whorly ears. The land gave us a stride, and the lake a dive. The amazement gave us our kind of mind. We should be thankful for that, and take nature's stricter lessons with some grace. . Gary Snyder
About This Quote

From the perspective of an environmentalist, the earth is a beautiful and valuable place, but it is also here to serve us. The earth does not mean to be hospitable to us, but we are hospitable to the earth.

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More Quotes By Gary Snyder
  1. In Western Civilization, our elders are books.
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  3. Will be but corpses dressed in frocks, who cannot speak to birds or rocks.
  4. The Government finally decided To wage the war all-out. Defeat is Un-American. And they took to the air, Their women beside themin bouffant hairdosputting nail-polish on thegunship cannon-buttons. And they never came downfor they found, the groundis Pro-Communist. And dirty. And the insects side with...
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