We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.
David SuzukiRead
Our beliefs, our values shape the way we look out at the world and the way we treat it. If we believe that we were here, placed here by God, that this - all of this creation is for us, it's for us to go and occupy, dominate and exploit, then we will proceed to do that.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our beliefs influence how we perceive and interact with the world.
This quote by David Suzuki emphasizes the profound impact of our beliefs and values on our worldview and our behavior towards nature. If we perceive ourselves as stewards of creation, our relationship with the environment will reflect care and responsibility; conversely, if we believe we are entitled to exploit it, our actions will reflect disregard for ecological balance.
Themes
BeliefsValuesWorldviewEnvironmentNature
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about environmental stewardship, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of responsible beliefs about nature.
More from David Suzuki
All quotes →As parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts we need to start getting out into nature with the young people in our lives. Families play a key role in getting kids outside.
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The medical literature tells us that the most effective ways to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many more problems are through healthy diet and exercise. Our bodies have evolved to move, yet we now use the energy in oil instead of muscles to do our work.
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Do you know how much land is under ice, rock and snow? Do you know why 90 percent of us live within 100 kilometres of the U.S. border? We have this idea we're a vast country. But the reality is that a lot of it, a huge amount, is uninhabitable.
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We no longer see the world as a single entity. We've moved to cities and we think the economy is what gives us our life, that if the economy is strong we can afford garbage collection and sewage disposal and fresh food and water and electricity. We go through life thinking that money is the key to having whatever we want, without regard to what it does to the rest of the world.
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