Thomas Jefferson Quotes

The earth belongs in usufruct to the living.

I set out on this ground which I suppose to be self-evident: 'That the earth belongs in usufruct to the living;' that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it...

Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us to restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wildlife and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.

A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.

We owe it to each other - and to our children and grandchildren - to leave our planet in a better state than when we found it.

We owe at least this much to future generations, from whom we have borrowed a fragile planet called Earth.

The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.

All too often, the conversation about appropriate and balanced environmental stewardship gets caught up in partisan politics. Yet, this conversation is key to the preservation of our great country for generations to come, as important as ensuring we have fiscally responsible policies to secure our future.

I haven't inherited the earth from my parents, I am borrowing it from my children.

Each generation takes the earth as trustees. We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.

How much will you give for the lives of your childrens children, which is yourself? How much are people willing to give up for air, earth, water, animals, and the coming generations? I think the answer to that is pretty clear.

Act so that the effects of your actions are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life.

Our ideals, laws and customs should be based on the proposition that each generation in turn becomes the custodian rather than the absolute owner of our resources - and each generation has the obligation to pass this inheritance on in the future.

If we each take responsibility in shifting our own behavior, we can trigger the type of change that is necessary to achieve sustainability for our race or this planet. We change our planet, our environment, our humanity every day, every year, every decade, and every millennia.

The earth and its resources belong of right to its people.

The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.

This land, this water, this air, this planet - this is our legacy to our young.

Taking care of our families isn't just about putting food on the table today. It's about ensuring that our children and grandchildren will have a habitable world where they can get to know various species of sea turtles.

What would help us preserve our natural resources are genetic traits that let us sacrifice the present for the sake of the future. You need wisdom to sacrifice something that is immediately useful or advantageous for the sake of something that will be important in the future.

We need what I have often called an ecological approach to the management of these resources and we do not have that now. We have the inertia of past habits, unsustainable habits.

Look abroad thro' Nature's range. Nature's mighty law is change.

Land is not something you inherit from your parents. It is something you borrow from your children.

Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.

That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics..

Humanity stands ... before a great problem of finding new raw materials and new sources of energy that shall never become exhausted. In the meantime we must not waste what we have, but must leave as much as possible for coming generations.