Every person who has ever achieved anything has been knocked down many times. But all of them picked themselves up and kept going, and that is what I have always tried to do.
Wangari MaathaiRead
What a friend we have in a tree, the tree is the symbol of hope, self improvement and what people can do for themselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the tree as a symbol of hope and personal growth.
Wangari Maathai emphasizes the significance of trees as not just natural entities but as powerful symbols of hope, self-improvement, and the potential for individuals to contribute positively to their own lives and the environment. The tree serves as a reminder of how nurturing nature can mirror our quest for personal and communal growth.
Themes
FriendshipHopeGrowthNatureSelf-Improvement
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used at an environmental rally to inspire action.
More from Wangari Maathai
All quotes →It was easy to persecute me without people feeling ashamed. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman' and as a highly educated elitist who was trying to show innocent African women ways of doing things that were not acceptable to African men.
Wangari MaathaiRead
I know there is pain when sawmills close and people lose jobs, but we have to make a choice. We need water and we need these forests.
Wangari MaathaiRead
We’re constantly being bombarded by problems that we face and sometimes we can get completely overwhelmed. [But] we should always feel like a hummingbird. I may feel insignificant, but I don’t want to be like the other animals watching the planet go down the drain. I’ll be a hummingbird, I’ll do the best I can.
Wangari MaathaiRead
As long as there is no trust and confidence that there will be justice and fairness in resource distribution, political positioning will remain more important than service
Wangari MaathaiRead
It gradually became clear that the Green Belt Movement's work with communities to repair the degraded environment could not be done effectively without participants embracing a set of core spiritual values.
Wangari MaathaiRead
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