It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.
I believe that the great Creator has put ores and oil on this Earth to give us a breathing spell ... as we exhaust them, we must be prepared to fall back on our farms, which are God's true storehouse. We can learn to synthesize materials for every human need from things that grow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Natural resources are a temporary gift, urging us to cherish agriculture as our fundamental source of sustenance.
George Washington Carver's quote emphasizes the importance of natural resources like ores and oil but highlights the need to recognize agriculture as the ultimate source of sustenance. He suggests that while we rely on finite natural resources, we should focus on sustainable farming practices and learn to utilize the Earth's bountiful offerings to meet our human needs, thus fostering a deep connection to nature and its provisions.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a sustainability conference, this quote can inspire discussions about the importance of agriculture in resource management.
More from George Washington Carver
All quotes →We have become 99 percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and within our income, laying a little by systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is due to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts.
I would never allow anyone to give me money, no difference how badly I needed it. I wanted literally to earn my living.
Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.
God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.
Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.
Similar quotes
Flowers are as common in the country as people are in London.
Those trees are your lungs. The earth recycles as your body. The rivers recycle as your circulation. The air is your breath. So what do we call the environment?
Allow nature to teach you stillness.
Now this circumscribed power, which we have scarcely examined, scarcely studied, this power to whose actions we nearly always attribute an intention and a goal, this power, finally, that always does necessarily the same things in the same circumstances and nevertheless does so many and such admirable ones, is what we call 'nature' .
Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.
In the world at large, people are rewarded or punished in ways that are often utterly random. In the garden, cause and effect, labor and reward, are re-coupled. Gardening makes sense in a senseless world. By extension, then, the more gardens in the world, the more justice, the more sense is created.