We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it.
WENDELL BERRYWe have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it.
WENDELL BERRYWe’re all complicit in the things we may be trying to oppose. I’m complicit in the things that I’m trying to oppose.
WENDELL BERRYAn economy genuinely local and neighborly offers to localities a measure of security that they cannot derive from a national or a global economy controlled by people who, by principle, have no local commitment.
WENDELL BERRYUrban conservationists may feel entitled to be unconcerned about food production because they are not farmers. But they can’t be let off so easily, for they are all farming by proxy.
WENDELL BERRYI was a bright boy and I ought to make something out of myself… something else that would be a cut or two above my humble origins.
WENDELL BERRYThe two great aims of industrialism – replacement of people by technology and concentration of wealth into the hands of a small plutocracy – seem close to fulfillment.
WENDELL BERRYAnd if we offend gravely enough against what we know to be true, as by failing badly enough to deal affectionately and responsibly with our land and our neighbors, truth will retaliate with ugliness, poverty, and disease.
WENDELL BERRYAnnual plants are nature’s emergency medical service, seeded in sounds and scars to hold the land until the perennial cover is re-established.
WENDELL BERRYAnd to take good care of it, we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it.
WENDELL BERRYThe ecosystems, the ecosphere, those are good gifts.
WENDELL BERRYPrayer is like lying awake at night, afraid, with your head under the cover, hearing only the beating of your own heart.
WENDELL BERRYBetter than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.
WENDELL BERRYWe have to regard them as gifts because we couldn’t make them. We have to regard them as good gifts because we couldn’t live without them.
WENDELL BERRYThe primary motive for good care and good use of the land-community is always going to be affection, which is too often lacking.
WENDELL BERRYIt means that your will and God’s will may not be the same. It means there’s a good possibility that you won’t get what you pray for. It means that in spite of your prayers you are going to suffer.
WENDELL BERRYWe cannot comprehend what comprehends us.
WENDELL BERRY