Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values. God made life simple. It is man who complicates it.
Interpretation
Understanding oneself requires a connection to nature, yet humans tend to complicate life's simplicity.
This quote by Charles Lindbergh emphasizes the importance of grounding oneself in the natural world to truly grasp one's identity and values. It suggests that while nature and existence are inherently simple, it is the complexities brought on by human actions and thoughts that obscure this simplicity, leading to a disconnect from our true selves and values.
In practice
During a mindfulness seminar, one could use this quote to illustrate the necessity of connecting with nature.
How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life?
In wilderness I sense the miracle of life.
Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life?
In honoring the Wright Brothers, it is customary and proper to recognize their contribution to scientific progress. But I believe it is equally important to emphasize the qualities in their pioneering life and the character in man that such a life produced. The Wright Brothers balanced sucess with modesty, science with simplicity. At Kitty Hawk their intellects and senses worked in mutual support. They represented man in balance, and from that balance came wings to lift a world.
We are in the grip of a scientific materialism, caught in a vicious cycle where our security today seems to depend on regimentation and weapons which will ruin us tomorrow.
We are in grave danger of losing forever not just millions of years of evolution on earth, but the eons of change that have produced man and his natural environment.
We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.
It has been said that the gate of history turns on small hinges, and so do people's lives. The choices we make determine our destiny.
People lose fifty million skin cells every day. The cells get scraped off and turn into invisible dust, and disappear into the air. Maybe we are nothing but skin cells as far as the world is concerned.
How can one, who eats the flesh of others to swell his flesh, show compassion?
The substance of man cannot be measured by Gross National Product.
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