“The atmosphere is the key symbol of global interdependence.”

We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.

We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.

[Partly as a consequence of male authority] prestige value always attaches to the activities of men.

Between friends there is no bribery. The relationship of friends is intrinsically fair and equal. Neither feels stronger or more clever or more beautiful than the other.

Warfare is just an invention, older and more widespread than the jury system, but none the less an invention.

One characteristic of Americans is that they have no toleration at all of anybody putting up with anything. We believe that whatever is going wrong ought to be fixed.

I have a respect for manners as such, they are a way of dealing with people you don’t agree with or like.

Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.

One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.

I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.

Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to co-operate.

In Bali life is a rhythmic, patterned unreality of pleasant, significant movement, centered in one’s own body to which all emotions long ago withdrew.

The problem with America today is that too many people know too much about not enough.

The assumption that men and woman are essentially alike in all respects, or even in the most important ones, is a damaging one, as damaging as the assumption that they are different in ways in which they aren’t different, perhaps more so.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world.

Of course we need children! Adults need children in their lives to listen to and care for, to keep their imagination fresh and their hearts young and to make the future a reality for which they are willing to work.

The real lesson of 9/11 that I think we have still to learn is that this is a world of interdependence, in which all of the challenges of environment and climate change, of jobs, of disease, of war and terrorism, are cross-border problems that cannot be met one nation at a time.

Capitalism’s grow-or-die imperative stands radically at odds with ecology’s imperative of interdependence and limit.

The truth is that since childhood I had cultivated an existential independence. It came from perceiving the adults around me as unreliable, and without it I felt I wouldn’t have survived. I cared deeply for everyone in my family, but in the end I depended on myself.