168 Quotes by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Doing science with awe and humility is a powerful act of reciprocity with the more-than-human world.

Our toddlers speak of plants and animals as if they were people, extending to them self and intention and compassion – until we teach them not to.

Refusal to participate is a moral choice. Water is a gift for all, not meant to be bought and sold. Don’t buy it. When food has been wrenched from the earth, depleting the soil and poisoning our relatives in the name of higher yields, don’t buy it.

Weep! Weep!” calls a toad from the water’s edge. And I do. If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again.

Strawberries first shaped my view of a world full of gifts simply scattered at your feet. A gift comes to you through no action of your own, free, having moved toward you without your beckoning. It is not a reward; you cannot earn it, or call it to you, or even deserve it. And yet it appears. Your only role is to be open-eyed and present.

It’s not just land that is broken, but more importantly, our relationship to land.

A species and a culture that treat the natural world with respect and reciprocity will surely pass on genes to ensuing generations with a higher frequency than the people who destroy it. The stories we choose to shape our behaviors have adaptive consequences.

From the very beginning of the world, the other species were a lifeboat for the people. Now, we must be theirs.

Suppression of our natural responses to disaster is part of the disease of our time.