Not all cultures…

Not all cultures in the world share the dominant Western view of a secularized, utilitarian, depersonalized nature. The existence of alternative views of the natural environment is important as part of the cultural heritage of humankind. This cultural diversity is akin to biodiversity as the raw material for evolutionarily adaptive responses

— Fikret Berkes (Sacred Ecology)

You must be the person…

You must be the person you have never had the courage to be. Gradually, you will discover that you are that person, but until you can see this clearly, you must pretend and invent.

— Paulo Coelho

Freedom,speech,thought

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use

— Soren Kierkegaard

Language, culture

A language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules, a language is a flash of the human spirit. It’s a vehicle through which the soul of each particular culture comes into the material world. Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities

— Wade Davis

Happiness, small & numerous

I am beginning to recognise that real happiness isn’t something large and looming on the horizon ahead but something small, numerous and already here. The smile of someone you love, a descent breakfast, the warm sunset. Your little everyday joys, all lined up in a row.

— Beau Taplin