WIST Quotations

Berry, Wendell -- Essay (1997), “Watershed and Commonwealth,” Citizenship Papers (2003)

Dave — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:10:20 +0000

People who live at the lower ends of watersheds cannot be isolationists — or not for long. Pretty soon they will notice that water flows, and that will set them to thinking about the people upstream who either do or do not send down their silt and pollutants and garbage. Thinking about the people upstream out to cause further thinking about the people downstream. Such pondering on the facts of gravity and the fluidity of water shows us that the golden rule speaks to a condition of absolute interdependency and obligation. People who live on rivers — or, in fact, anywhere in a watershed — might rephrase the rule in this way: Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1997), “Watershed and Commonwealth,” Citizenship Papers (2003)
(Source)

See Matthew 7:12.

Berry, Wendell -- Essay (1970-01-01), “Compromise, Hell!” Orion Magazine

Dave — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:55:44 +0000

We Americans are not usually thought to be a submissive people, but of course we are. Why else would we allow our country to be destroyed? Why else would we be rewarding its destroyers? Why else would we all — by proxies we have given to greedy corporations and corrupt politicians — be participating in its destruction? Most of us are still too sane to piss in our own cistern, but we allow others to do so and we reward them for it. We reward them so well, in fact, that those who piss in our cistern are wealthier than the rest of us.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1970-01-01), “Compromise, Hell!” Orion Magazine
(Source)

Carlin, George -- Show (1992-04-25), Jammin’ in New York, “The Planet Is Fine,” Paramount Theater, New York City (HBO)

Dave — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 17:15:51 +0000

The planet will be here for a long, long, long time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the Earth will be renewed.
And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the Earth plus plastic. The planet doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth. The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
“Plastic … assholes.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American comedian
Show (1992-04-25), Jammin’ in New York, “The Planet Is Fine,” Paramount Theater, New York City (HBO)
(Source)

(Source (Video))

Serling, Rod -- Commencement Address, University of Southern California (17 Mar 1970)

Dave — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 14:50:17 +0000

It’s simply a national acknowledgement that in any kind of priority, the needs of human beings must come first. Poverty is here and now. Hunger is here and now. Racial tension is here and now. Pollution is here and now. These are the things that scream for a response. And if we don’t listen to that scream — and if we don’t respond to it — we may well wind up sitting amidst our own rubble, looking for the truck that hit us — or the bomb that pulverized us. Get the license number of whatever it was that destroyed the dream. And I think we will find that the vehicle was registered in our own name.

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Commencement Address, University of Southern California (17 Mar 1970)
(Source)

In Anne Serling, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling, ch. 28 (2013).

~Other -- Pete Stark, Jr., in “Tumult & Shouting,” San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle (2 Jan 1972)

Dave — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 13:46:49 +0000

Throw a few chairmen of the board in jail for polluting the air and water, and you’ll see the pollution disappear quite rapidly. … You would also probably see some pretty drastic prison reform.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Pete Stark, Jr., in “Tumult & Shouting,” San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle (2 Jan 1972)

Stern, G. B. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 12:10:49 +0000

Man is a complex being who makes deserts bloom and lakes die.

G. B. Stern (1890–1973) British writer [Gladys Bronwyn Stern]
(Attributed)

Also attributed (unsourced) to Gil Stern, Gil Scott-Heron, and Lawrence Peter.