Sustainability - Quotations

Sustainability makes sense and there are many proverbs and quotations that warn us to pay attention to what we are doing and think about the consequences of our actions.  Many great thinkers, philosophers, scientists and others have pointed out the virtues of sustainable life style and have cautioned against unconstrained consumption. Sustainable development is really living off the income without spending the capital.

It is interesting to read what they say: They all can’t be wrong.

(The quotations are available on the web and collected from a variety of sources)

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough - Lao Tzu

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing, it was here first                                                                               - Mark Twain

He is not poor that has little, but he who desires much – proverb

We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to - Terri Swearingen

A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions - Luke 19:20

The human population can no longer be allowed to grow in the same old uncontrollable way. If we do not take charge of our population size, then nature will do it for us and it is the poor people of the world who will suffer most

                                                                                                    - Sir David Attenborough

“We're reaching the point where the Earth will have to end the burden we've placed on her, if we don't lift the burden ourselves.”                            ― Steven M. Greer

Unless we change direction, we are likely to end up where we are going

                                                                                                            - Chinese proverb

Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment

                                                                                                - Sir David Attenborough

Today's problems cannot be solved if we still think the way we thought when we created them                                                                                    - Albert Einstein

The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far, has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them

                                                                                                             - Albert Einstein

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives                                                                      - Abba Eban

The difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves - Ayn Rand

Anyone who believes in indefinite growth on a physically finite planet is either mad or an economist                                                                    - Sir David Attenborough

Unless we can ensure that the economy is kept subservient to our ecology, we will self-destruct                                                                                                  - Roger V Short

Economic growth won't feed a growing population living on this finite planet

                                                                                                                        - Phil Harding

'When you warn people about the dangers of climate change, they call you a saint. When you explain what needs to be done to stop it, they call you a communist.'

-       George Monbiot

It's here. If we don't react; war, pestilence and famine will follow close behind.'

-       R K Pachauri

'The next time you feel like complaining, remember that your garbage disposal probably eats better than 30 percent of the people in the world.' - Robert Orben

'Those who manage their way into a crisis are not necessarily the right people to manage their way out of a crisis.’                                           - Albert Einstein

'Almost all systems of economic thought are premised on the idea of continued economic growth, which would be fine and dandy if we lived on an infinite planet, but there's this small, niggling, inconvenient fact that the planet is, in fact, finite, and that, unlike economic theory, it is governed by physical and biological reality.'

-       George Monbiot

'There is a simple rule about the environment. If there is waste or pollution, someone along the line pays for it.'                                - Lee Scott, Chief Executive, Wal-Mart

'I think we'd be very foolish to expect that we can just import everything from somewhere else and imagine that that's going to last for ever and ever and ever.'

                                   - HRH The Prince of Wales, BBC interview, October 2005.

'The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.‘

Government must realise that economic growth does not guarantee quality of life.'

It is impossible for the world economy to grow its way out of poverty and environmental degradation... In its physical dimensions, the economy is an open subsystem of the earth's ecosystem, which is finite, non-growing and materially closed. Therefore its growth is not sustainable.

'The security of people and nations rests on four pillars - food, energy, water and climate. They are all closely related, and all under increasing stress.’  -    Tom Burke

'All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.’            -  Arthur Schopenhauer

'You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.’                                                                       - Albert Einstein