Inspiring Quotations

Sometimes a famous quotation can help change a person's behavior for the better. These recycling, nature, energy & climate change quotes may help motivate and inspire students, residents, staff and others. Try using them when you need a little extra something in brochures, presentations, educational materials, or just want to convince a friend that recycling is the right thing to do!

You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.
~ Jane Goodall

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.
~ Rachel Carson

Information is like compost; it does no good unless you spread it around.
~ Eliot Coleman

I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use.
~ Mother Teresa

The Earth is what we all have in common.
~ Wendell Berry

Time spent among trees is never time wasted. 
~ Anonymous

Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.
~ John Ruskin

We won't have a society if we destroy the environment.
~ Margaret Mead

Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find.
~ Quoted in Time Magazine

What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
~ Henry David Thoreau

Every kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary.
~ Nathan Hale

The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.
~ Rachel Carson

When the people become involved in their government, government becomes more accountable, and our society is stronger, more compassionate, and better prepared for the challenges of the future.
~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

However high a bird may soar, it seeks its food on earth.
~ Proverb

In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy.
~ John C. Sawhill

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not.
~ The Lorax, by Dr. Suess

Cheat the earth and the earth will cheat you.
~ Proverb

Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.
~ Thomas A. Edison

Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand.
~ Ancient Chinese Proverb

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
~ Anonymous

There is something fundamentally wrong in treating the earth as if it was a business in liquidation.
~ Herman Daly

There's so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic.
~ Lily Tomlin

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.
~ Bernard Manning

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.
~ Eeyore

As soon as public service ceases to be the chief business of the citizens, and they would rather serve with their money than with their persons, the State is not far from its fall.
~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.
~ Blaise Pascal

Why should I care about future generations?  What have they ever done for me?
~ Groucho Marx

Things do not change; we change.
~ Henry David Thoreau

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
~ Helen Keller

We have to show leadership in protecting our environment so that we have a future for our children and grandchildren.
~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.
~ Confucius

Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.
~ Aldo Leopold

Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.
~ David Suzuki

A weed is no more than a flower in disguise.
~ James Russell Lowell

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
~ Aldo Leopold

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.  When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
~ Aldo Leopold

Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.
~ Mark Twain

Environmental damage such as graffiti, fly-posting and general littering is a menace that is becoming all too prevalent, not just in inner cities but in many communities - urban and rural.
~ Margaret Beckett

It's just not acceptable anymore to litter, just like it's not acceptable anymore to dump anything into rivers or streams.
~ Tracy Bowen

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
~ Helen Keller

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.
~ Edward Everett Hale 

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Content last Updated June 19, 2020