Graham Swift Quotes

The relation of the conservation of natural resources to the problems of National welfare and National efficiency had not yet dawned on the public mind. The reclamation of arid public lands in the West was still a matter for private enterprise alone; and our magnificent river system, with its superb possibilities for public usefulness, was dealt with by the National Government not as a unit, but as a disconnected series of pork-barrel problems, whose only real interest was in their effect on the re-election or defeat of a Congressman here and there—a theory which, I regret to say, still obtains.

You can't conserve what you haven't got.

Georgia is in an enviable position today, but we can't rest on our laurels.

By use you possess gain; by disuse you decline and lose.

Change is not always progress.

… as a nation we haven't expected our government to show foresight in the development of the land. We have allowed individuals to do as they thought best and they could hardly be expected to have an altruistic attitude on the future. Now we are faced with lands that must be returned to buffalo grass or trees in order to prevent the suffering which many of our people are enduring today. All of us will gladly help in the emergency but I hope we will do more than that, and set ourselves to studying the things which have caused these conditions and never rest until our government remedies them.

Pollution Prevention, Not Polluter Protection Not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress.

If we want a world that is truly sustainable, we have to realize that something old can also be perfect. Otherwise, we'll just throw away our yesterday.

It is no less a feat to keep what you have, than to increase it. In one there is chance, the other will be a work of art.

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!

I'm in favor of progress; it's change I don't like.

I believe that solution to all problems is in development. Development is also the solution to the tension that people talk about.

It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!

The concept of conservation is a far truer sign of civilization than that spoilation of a continent which we once confused with progress.

Always move forward, going straight will get you nowhere.

Resources on the planet are limited, and limited resources can come to an end. But there are also a lot of resources that are renewable. A lot of land, for example, can be reclaimed from the encroaching deserts.

President Obama believes that we have a moral obligation to the next generation to leave our land, water, and wildlife better than we found it.

progress, whatever your definition of it, is not inevitable.

If a man has a science to learn he must regularly and resolutely advance.

We do not have to choose between a healthy environment and a healthy economy.

Now is the time to move this country forward.

Perhaps because the challenges we face in our country are so daunting, we are also tempted by shortcuts. We tell ourselves that if we invent a new acronym, or write a new empowerment charter, we can avoid some of the back-breaking work that sustained progress requires

America has been in existence for 150 years and this is the level she has reached. We have existed not quite 42 years and in another seven years we will be on the same level as America. When we catch you up, in passing you by, we will wave to you.

Conservation of our resources is the fundamental question before this nation, and that our first and greatest task is to set our house in order and begin to live within our means.

Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.