I like to live my life so that my loved ones give me the things I need as gifts and I give them the things they need. Frankly a society built around consumerism is hell
In nature's economy the currency is not money, it is life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that true value in the natural world is measured by life and ecological balance rather than monetary wealth.
Vandana Shiva's quote highlights the importance of recognizing life as the essential currency in nature's economy. It suggests that the interconnectedness of all living beings and the sustainability of ecosystems take precedence over traditional economic measures like money. This perspective urges us to value biodiversity, ecological health, and the fundamental role of life itself in sustaining our planet, over the often fleeting and superficial nature of financial wealth.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech on environmental conservation to emphasize the intrinsic value of nature.
More from Vandana Shiva
All quotes βCultivating and conserving diversity is no luxury in our times: it is a survival imperative.
We are either going to have a future where women lead the way to make peace with the Earth or we are not going to have a human future at all.
We've moved from wisdom to knowledge, and now we're moving from knowledge to information, and that information is so partial β that we're creating incomplete human beings.
Earth Democracy connects people in circles of care, cooperation, and compassion instead of dividing them through competition and conflict, fear and hatred.
The time has come to reclaim the stolen harvest and celebrate the growing and giving of good food as the highest gift and the most revolutionary act.
Similar quotes
When I opened my eyes I saw nothing but the pool of nocturnal sky, for I was lying on my back with out-stretched arms, face to face with that hatchery of stars. Only half awake, still unaware that those depths were sky, having no roof between those depths and me, no branches to screen them, no root to cling to, I was seized with vertigo and felt myself as if flung forth and plunging downward like a diver.
Nature! We live in her midst and know her not. She is incessantly speaking to us, but betrays not her secret. We constantly act upon her, and yet have no power over her. Variant: NATURE! We are surrounded and embraced by her: powerless to separate ourselves from her, and powerless to penetrate beyond her.
A fish is more valuable swimming in the sea maintaining the integrity of oceanic eco-systems than it is on anyone's plate.
Instead I will say, "Take me to your trees. Take me to your breakfasts, your sunsets, your bad dreams, your shoes, your nouns. Take me to your fingers; take me to your deaths." These are worth it. These are what I have come for.
That grand old poem called Winter
The earth has grown old with its burden of care, But at Christmas it always is young.