Just as our forefathers saved and invested to build what we, the current generation, are enjoying today, so, too, we must plant trees so that our sons and daughters, and their sons and daughters, can enjoy the shade.
Interpretation
The actions we take today should benefit future generations.
This quote emphasizes the importance of making sacrifices and investments today for the benefit of future generations, similar to how our ancestors worked to create a better life for us. It highlights the idea of stewardship for the environment and the necessity of planting trees, which symbolize growth, sustainability, and the legacy we leave behind for our children and grandchildren.
In practice
During a community meeting about environmental initiatives, one could say: 'Just as our forefathers saved and invested to build what we, the current generation, are enjoying today, we must plant trees today for our future.'
If we did not have a sense of who we were, how we got here, why we want to achieve something - which, on the face of it, on the logic of it, is probably not worth trying - and prove that logic wrong, then you wouldn't succeed; then you would just evaporate.
You need people who have their own views, whose views you respect, whom you can have a productive disagreement with, and work out ideas which you might not have come up with, or who improve on ideas you had.
When people say they don't want a nanny state, they are, in fact, in a conflicted state of mind. On the one hand, they want to do whatever they want and not be stopped. On the other hand, if something goes wrong, they want to be rescued.
You need to have good people: honourable, capable, committed in politics, standing in public office. It's not a guarantee, but it's the ideal we have to aim for.
No government prospers by saying, 'I don't need to do anything. Just by being there, we have made the country thrive.'
These stars of earth, these golden flowers.
How sweet is the perception of a new natural fact!
I know there is pain when sawmills close and people lose jobs, but we have to make a choice. We need water and we need these forests.
In Holland and Belgium, and afterwards in England, my happiest moments were in the country. I've always had a passion for the outdoors, for trees, for birds and flowers.
The day, water, sun, moon, night - I do not have to purchase these things with money.
I've always admired gardens. My father was a great nature lover and would always take me for walks. We lived not too far away from huge rhododendron estates and azalea estates, and when they're in bloom in England, they're just riotous.
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