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.
A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth reading.
Non-violence means dialogue, using our language, the human language. Dialogue means compromise; respecting each other’s rights; in the spirit of reconciliation there is a real solution to conflict and disagreement. There is no hundred percent winner, no hundred percent loser—not that way but half-and-half. That is the practical way, the only way.
History comes and history goes, but principles endure, and ensure future generations will defend liberty not as a gift from government but as a blessing from our Creator.
The preachers commission is to declare the whole counsel of God; but the cross is the center of that counsel.
Futurists don't consider overpopulation one of the issues of the future. They consider it the issue of the future.
"Terrorism" is what we call the violence of the weak, and we condemn it; "war" is what we call the violence of the strong, and we glorify it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.