I hold the most archaic values on earth ... the fertility of the soul, the magic of the animals, the power-vision in solitude.... the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe.
Gary SnyderRead
We . . . must try to live without causing unnecessary harm, not just to fellow humans but to all beings. We must try not to be stingy, or to exploit others. There will be enough pain in the world as it is.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of living compassionately and avoiding harm to all beings.
Gary Snyder's quote advocates for a mindful existence that respects and protects not only human life but all forms of existence. He stresses the importance of generosity and warns against exploitation, emphasizing that the world already contains sufficient suffering, and we should strive to reduce it through our actions and choices.
Themes
CompassionHarmExistenceGenerosityExploitationSuffering
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on environmental conservation, I quoted Snyder to highlight the interconnectedness of life.
More from Gary Snyder
All quotes →Being the Stream Meditation is not just a rest or retreat from the turmoil of the stream or the impurity of the world. It is a way of being the stream, so that one can be at home in both the white water and the eddies. Meditation may take one out of the world, but it also puts one totally into it.
Gary SnyderRead
Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.
Gary SnyderRead
In the belly of the furnace of creativity is a sexual fire; the flames twine about each other in fear and delight. The same sort of coiling, at a cooler, slower pace, is what the life of this planet looks like. The enormous spirals of typhoons, the twists and turns of mountain ranges and gorges, the waves and the deep ocean currents - a dragonlike writhing.
Gary SnyderRead
Forests in the tropics are cut to make pasture to raise beef for the American market. Our distance from the source of our food enables us to be superficially more comfortable, and distinctly more ignorant.
Gary SnyderRead
Wherever man exists, he finds the need to redesign, to recreate the world. A more beautiful world, purer, sweeter smelling and more colorful. A garden is probably the spot where the hopes for civilization are best captured. In fact, man defines himself by his garden. My Grandmother standing wordless fifteen minutes Between rows of loganberries, clippers poised in her hand.
Gary SnyderRead
Similar quotes
Death and disaster are at our shoulders every second of our lives, trying to get at us. Missing, a lot of the time. A lot of miles on the motorway without a front wheel blow-out. A lot of viruses that slither through our bodies without snagging. A lot of pianos that fall a minute after we've passed. Or a month, it makes no difference. So unless we're going to get down on our knees and give thanks every time disaster misses, it makes no sense to moan when it strikes.
Hugh LaurieRead
Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established
ConfuciusRead
Our physiological constitution is obviously a product of Darwinian processes, insofar as you buy the evolutional theory as a generative, as an account of the mechanism that generated us. Our physiology evolved, our behaviors evolved, and our accounts of those behaviors, both successful and unsuccessful, evolved.
Jordan PetersonRead
Let our lives be in accordance with our convictions of right, each striving to carry out our principles.
Lucretia MottRead
Whether we eat, sleep, work, play, whatever we do life contains dissatisfaction, pain. If we enjoy pleasure, we are afraid to lose it; we strive for more and more pleasure or try to contain it. If we suffer pain we want to escape it. We experience dissatisfaction all the time. All activities contain dissatisfaction or pain, continuously.
Chogyam TrungpaRead
The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are clever as he.
Karl KrausRead