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Liz's Blog

Farm Anecdotes The following are inspirational poems, jokes, proverbs, sayings, and statistics about farming and the environment. Enjoy!

The best things in life are nearest:
breath in your nostrils
light in your eyes
flowers at your feet
duties at your hand
the path of right just before you.
Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.

Robert Louis Stevenson


We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

Native American proverb


In our every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.

Traditional Iroquois Saying


Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we. 

Michel de Montaigne


You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi


The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.

Gaylord Nelson, former governor of Wisconsin, co-founder of Earth Day


In the long term, economic sustainability depends on ecological sustainability.


America’s Living Oceans  [Pew Oceans Report, 2003]


If you want one year of prosperity, plant corn.
If you want ten years of prosperity, plant trees.
If you want one hundred years of prosperity, educate people.

Chinese proverb


Food is our common ground, a universal experience.

James Beard


I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time.

Steven Wright


I think God's going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding.

Steven Wright


I bought an ant farm.  I don't know where I am going to get a tractor that small!

Steven Wright


Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.

Eeyore, from A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh


True wisdom consists in not departing from nature and in molding our conduct according to her laws and model.

Seneca


It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.

Jimmy Carter


Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.

John Muir


There are 70 pesticides that are listed as known or probable carcinogens, based on animal testing. Of those 70, 44 are in use today, and 23 are used on our food.

Gina Solomon, specialist in internal medicine [2001]


Even though cars get worse gas mileage than two decades ago, they actually have become much more efficient. The problem is that the efficiency went into more power and larger, heavier vehicles, not into fuel economy. If all of the technological efficiency improvements had gone into efficiency, miles per gallon would be significantly higher than they are today.

Neal Elliott, Industrial Program Director,American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy


A farmer purchased an old, run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving enterprise. The fields were grown over with weeds, the farmhouse was falling apart, and the fences were broken down.  During his first day of work, the town preacher stops by to bless the man's work, saying, "May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams!"   A few months later, the preacher stops by again to call on the farmer.  Lo and behold, it's a completely different place.  The farm house is completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there is plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields are filled with crops planted in neat rows.  "Amazing!" the preacher says. "Look what God and you have accomplished together!" "Yes, reverend," says the farmer, "but remember what the farm was like when God was working it alone!"


Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.

Rachel Carson


And my personal favorite:

As the farmer who won the lottery said when asked what he was going to do with his winnings,
"Keep farming until it's all gone.”