Inspiring Earth Day Quotes to Ignite Your Passion for the Planet

"The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth."

- Chief Seattle

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

- Native American Proverb

"We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it."

- Barack Obama

"If every day were #EarthDay we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in."

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

"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

"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together … all things connect."

- Chief Seattle

"We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change—and it has to start today."

- Greta Thunberg

"Look after the land and the land will look after you, destroy the land and it will destroy you."

- Aboriginal Proverb

"A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children."

- John James Audobon

"The earth is a tiny and fragile world. It needs to be cherished."

- Carl Sagan

"The earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship."

- Pope John Paul II

"Every person has the inalienable right to a decent environment."

- Gaylord Nelson

"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make."

- Jane Goodall

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children."

- Kenyan Proverb

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts."

- Rachel Carson

"The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it."

- Chief Joseph

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed."

- Gandhi

"We don’t own the planet Earth; we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife."

- Steve Irwin

"The Earth does not belong to us: we belong to the Earth."

- Marlee Matlin

"The environment is where we all meet, where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share."

- Lady Bird Johnson

"The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it."

- Robert Swan

"The earth is what we all have in common."

- Wendell Berry

"If the environment is happy, people will laugh and your grief will go away."

- Srinivas Mishra

"The Earth is what we all have in common."

- Wendell Berry

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."

- Albert Einstein

"To leave the world better than you found it, sometimes you have to pick up other people’s trash."

- Bill Nye

"No one comes from the earth like grass. We come like trees. We all have roots."

- Maya Angelou

"We are on Earth to take care of life. We are on Earth to take care of each other."

- Xiye Bastida

"I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use."

- Mother Teresa

"A vibrant, fair, and regenerative future is possible — not when thousands of people do climate justice activism perfectly but when millions of people do the best they can."

- Xiye Bastida

"Together we can preserve the forest, securing this immense treasure for the future of all these children."

- Chico Mendes

"An understanding of the natural world and what’s in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment."

- David Attenborough

"The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win."

- António Guterres

"Every day is Earth Day, and I vote we start investing in a secure climate future right now."

- Jackie Speier

"All we have to do is to wake up and change."

- Greta Thunberg

"The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for."

- Ernest Hemingway

"The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share."

- Lady Bird Johnson

"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make."

- Jane Goodall

"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

"What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?"

- Henry David Thoreau

"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. You are just talking."

- Wangari Maathai

"I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."

- John Muir

"The incredible beauty of the earth as seen from space results largely from the fact that our planet is covered with living things."

- René Dubos

"The earth laughs in flowers ..."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken."

- Leo Tolstoy

"For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it."

- Jacques-Yves Cousteau

"The whole world is, to me, very much 'alive'—all the little growing things, even the rocks. I can’t look at a swell bit of grass and earth, for instance, without feeling the essential life—the things going on-within them."

- Ansel Adams

"We can do this. This is the biggest emergent social movement in all of history. We can do this. And if anybody thinks that we don’t have the political will, remember, political will is itself a renewable resource."

- Al Gore

"Twenty-five years ago people could be excused for not knowing much, or doing much, about climate change. Today we have no excuse."

- Desmond Tutu

"The future will either be green or not at all."

- Bob Brown

"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks."

- John Muir

"The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship."

- Pope Francis

"Without a healthy environment, we cannot have healthy people."

- Sherri Goodman

"With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live."

- Sylvia Earle

"As long as the Earth can make a spring every year, I can. As long as the Earth can flower and produce nurturing fruit, I can, because I’m the same thing."

- Alice Walker

"The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. If we cannot sustain the environment, we cannot sustain ourselves."

- Wangari Maathai

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."

- Aldo Leopold

"In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught."

- Baba Dioum

"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."

- Jane Goodall

"Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing."

- Wangari Maathai

"We have a single mission: to protect and hand on the planet to the next generation."

- Francois Hollande

"If we don’t take care of this planet, who will?"

- Katharine Hayhoe

"We have to save the planet, and the only way we’re going to do it is together."

- Sylvia Earle

"The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved."

- Richard Rogers

"We have to live differently. We have to live in harmony with the Earth. The Earth is like a spaceship with limited resources."

- Jacques-Yves Cousteau

"In nature, nothing exists alone."

- Rachel Carson

"There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere."

- Annie Leonard

"Every person has the power to make a difference, and every person should try."

- Jane Goodall

"What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"We have to start treating the Earth as if we intend to stay."

- Donella Meadows

"The earth is a fine place and worth fighting for."

- Ernest Hemingway

"The earth is the mother, I am her son."

- Atharva Veda

"The environment is everything that isn’t me."

- Albert Einstein

"And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and my soul."

- John Muir

"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful."

- Alice Walker

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty."

- John Ruskin

"Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise."

- George Washington Carver

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."

- Edward Abbey

"Conserving our natural resources and environment is not just a personal responsibility, it is a public value."

- George W. Bush

"The proper use of science is not to conquer nature but to live in it."

- Barry Commoner

"Deforestation is not just a problem in the Amazon, but a worldwide problem."

- Sigourney Weaver

"To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from."

- Terry Tempest Williams

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view."

- Edward Abbey

"Earth rejoices our words, breathing and peaceful steps. Let every breath, every word and every step make the mother earth proud of us."

- Amit Ray

"You are not Atlas carrying the world on your shoulder. It is good to remember that the planet is carrying you."

- Vandana Shiva

"If every day were Earth Day we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in."

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

"The earth has music for those who listen."

- William Shakespeare

"It looks big, Earth. But there are lots of us on here (7,523,458,567 and counting) so be kind."

- Oliver Jeffers

"If you think the economy is more important than the environment, try holding your breath while counting your money."

- Guy McPherson

"The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind."

- Paracelsus

"I firmly believe nature brings solace in all troubles."

- Anne Frank

"The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also."

- Harriet Ann Jacobs

"The world is but a canvas to our imagination."

- Henry David Thoreau

"The greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living is the natural world."

- David Attenborough

"We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us."

- Albert Einstein

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water."

- Loren Eiseley

"Time spent among trees is never time wasted."

- Katrina Mayer

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

- Kahlil Gibran

"If we’re destroying the Earth, why would we want to go to Mars?"

- Buzz Aldrin

"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you."

- Frank Lloyd Wright

"When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water."

- Benjamin Franklin

"Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished."

- Lao Tzu

"The earth is always changing...readjusting to our existence. Each era is full of unique challenges"

- Val Uchendu

"Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

- Joni Mitchell

"The most environmentally friendly product is the one you didn’t buy."

- Joshua Becker

"The total effect of the environmental crisis cannot be evaluated because it is spread throughout the whole social structure."

- René Dubos

"We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives."

- Gary Zukhav

"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The miracle is not to fly in the air or to walk on water, but to walk on the earth."

- Chinese proverb

"The sun does not forget a village just because it is small."

- African Proverb

"The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful."

- E. E. Cummings

"The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment."

- Johannes Kepler

"We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do."

- Barbara Ward

"To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug."

- Helen Keller

"The most environmentally-friendly product is the one you didn’t buy."

- Joshua Becker

"Nature is an infinite sphere of which the centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere."

- Blaise Pascal

"Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s Party!"

- Robin Williams

"The real you is loving, joyful and free. The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the sun."

- Don Miguel Ruiz

"You can never see a plant grow, but they do."

- Carol Plum-Ucci

"You don’t live on earth, you are passing through."

- Rumi

"Land really is the best art."

- Andy Warhol

"The good Earth—we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy."

- Kurt Vonnegut

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

- George Bernard Shaw

"Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries."

- Jimmy Carter

"To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival."

"The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations."

"Pay your rent for the privilege of living on this beautiful, blue-green, living Earth."

"If you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according to what others think, you will never be rich."

"Don’t blow it – good planets are hard to find."

"The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun."