The destiny of our land, the air we breathe, the water we drink is not in the mystical hands of an uncontrollable agent, it is in our hands. A future which brings the balancing of our resources-preserving quality with quantity - is a future limited only by the boundaries of our will to get the job done.
The recent upsurge of public concern over environmental questions reflects a belated recognition that man has been too cavalier in his relations with nature. Unless we arrest the depredations that have been inflicted so carelessly on our natural systems-which exist in an intricate set of balances-we face the prospect of ecological disaster.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the urgent need for awareness and action regarding environmental issues due to humanity's careless treatment of nature.
Richard M. Nixon's quote highlights the growing public awareness of environmental issues, suggesting that people are beginning to recognize the detrimental impact humanity has had on natural ecosystems. He warns that unless society takes serious measures to address these careless actions, we risk leading ourselves towards catastrophic ecological consequences. The intricate balances of nature can be easily disrupted, indicating that our relationship with the environment requires careful consideration and respect.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about climate change, highlight Nixon's quote to stress the importance of taking immediate action to protect the environment.
More from Richard M. Nixon
All quotes →The ability to be cool, confident, and decisive in crisis is not an inherited characteristic but is the direct result of how well the individual has prepared himself for the battle.
If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.
If the President does it, it can't be illegal.
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.
Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively, and if after all of this time, and all of this sacrifice, and all of this support, there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past.
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I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping...I hear it in the deep heart's core.
The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal Nature bade me weep no more.
Once plants and animals were raised together on the same farm - which therefore neither produced unmanageable surpluses of manure, to be wasted and to pollute the water supply, nor depended on such quantities of commercial fertilizer. The genius of American farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems.
I wish that all of nature's magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.
We don't have to look far for miracles because they're all around us. Everything is astonishing. The universe on it's surface is alive with mystery.
Earlier, 100,000 elephants lived in Kenya and we didn't have any noteworthy problem with it. The problem that we have is not that there are now more elephants.