Dennis Banks Quotes

The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be to understand and protect nature's precarious balance, let alone the balance of our own human nature.

Not all is doom and gloom. We are beginning to understand the natural world and are gaining a reverence for life - all life.

The land and the ocean are living, breathing entities that supported us, clothed us, fed us, and nurtured our culture from time immemorial.

I adore water, so it would be a real adventure to visit the Amazon before they chop down all the trees.

The principles that will save Earth's life are the same principles that save the living souls of humans: ineluctable spiritual principles.

Since the beginning, Native Peoples lived a life of being in harmony with all that surrounds us.

Sustainability is a seemingly laudable goal - it tells us we need to live within our means, whether economic, ecological, or political - but it's insufficient for uncertain times. How can we live within our means when those very means can change, swiftly and unexpectedly, beneath us?

I think having nature be a part of people's lives helps all of us see ourselves as part of something larger.

The Earth does not belong to us: we belong to the Earth.

For me, the study of these laws is inseparable from a love of Nature in all its manifestations.

I want to interpret the natural world and our links to it. It's driven by the belief of many world-class scientists that we're in the midst of an extinction crisis... This time it's us that's doing it.

By obtaining a sense of its place in the unfolding drama of life, set in an ecological theatre, so we can understand why it has become one of the leading players.

Nature is our eldest mother; she will do no harm.

Environmentalism isn't a discipline or specialty. It's a way of seeing our place in the world. And we need everybody to see the world that way. Don't think 'In order to make a difference I have to become an environmentalist.'

In the time of the sacred sites and the crashing of ecosystems and worlds, it may be worth not making a commodity out of all that is revered.

Sooner or later we've got to tie the saving of the natural world to our own public welfare.

Some environmentalists have had the feeling that Indians are not good stewards. I've always been critical of that.

I hardly can sleep. I feel that my target now is really to save Mother Earth for humanity. And it's doable.

We can not have equilibrium in this world with the current inequality and destruction of Mother Earth. Capitalism is what is causing this problem and it needs to end.

The natural world is not indestructible.

People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.

A lot of people think they need to give up nature to become adults but that's not true. However, you have to be careful how you describe and define 'nature.'

Now, more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent.

The only thing I want is to awaken all humans on the planet that we are living on Mother Earth.

In all of my books, I've emphasized that the fundamental difference between civilized and indigenous ways of being is that, for even the most open-minded of the civilized, listening to the natural world is a metaphor.