VIPL Service Learning Project - Interfaith Quotes

Interfaith Quotes for Preservation of and Care for the Earth

“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and all those who live in it.” Psalm 24:1

"Greater indeed than the creation of humankind is the creation of the heavens and the earth. Yet, most of humanity does not understand." Qur'an 40:57

“The relationship between the human community and the natural world cannot be healed by a single, particular faith, but only by a profound understanding that all faiths should revere a single Earth.” Tom Hayden, in The Lost Gospel of the Earth

"The Holy Blessed One took the first human, and passing before all the trees of the Garden of Eden, said, 'See my works, how fine and excellent they are! All that I created, I created for you. Reflect on this, and do not corrupt or desolate my world; for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you.'" Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13

“It would go a great way to caution and direct people in the use of the world, that they were better studied and known in the Creation of it. For how could Man find the Confidence to abuse it, while they should see the Great Creator stare them in the face, in all and every part thereof?” William Penn in Some Fruits of Solitude

“The Lord placed the Human Being in the Garden of Eden to till it and to tend it.” Genesis 2:15

“Ask the animals, and they shall teach you; the birds of the air, and they shall instruct you. Speak to the earth and it shall teach you.” Job 12:7-8

“We eat not simply to satisfy our own appetites, we eat to sustain ourselves in the task we have been given. Each of us is unique coming into the world with a gift no other can offer: ourselves. We eat to nourish the vehicle of giving, we eat to sustain our task of world repair, our quest for harmony, peace and justice.” Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro from Earth Prayers

"Tzedek, tzedek tirdof.... Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and dwell in the land that the Eternal your God is giving you." Deuteronomy 16:20

“There is nothing more tragic in all the world than to know right and not to do it.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness . . . are contrary to the order of creation. . . . The ecological crisis is a moral issue.” Pope John Paul II

“There is enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed.” Mahatma Gandhi

“Faith without action is dead.” James 2:17

“Be the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi

“Before you finish eating breakfast this morning, you've depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured. . . . We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of reality.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“When you realize you have enough, then you are truly rich.” Tao Teh Ching

"It is He Who produce gardens, with trellises and without, and dates, and tilth with produce of all kinds, and olives and pomegranates, similar in kind and different in variety; Eat of their fruit in their season, but render the dues that are proper on the day of the harvest is gathered. But waste not by excess; for Allah love not the wasters." The Quran 6:141

“The earth is mother of all that is natural, of all that is human.” St. Hildegard of Bingen

“I believe that to meet the challenge of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility…. It is the best foundation for world peace, the equitable use of natural resources and, through concern for future generations, the proper care of the environment.” The 14th Dalai Lama

"Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!" Phil. 2:4-8

“We, all of us, are being called to do something unprecedented. We are being called to think about 'everything that is,' for we now know that everything is interrelated and that the well-being of each is connected to the well-being of the whole. This suggests a 'planetary agenda' for all the religions, all the various fields of expertise.” Sallie McFague, theologian

“Is not the sky a father, and the earth a mother, and are not all living things with feet and roots their children?” Black Elk

"Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. The LORD almighty has declared in my hearing: 'Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants. A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.'" Isaiah 5:8-10

"The present threat to mankind's survival can be removed only by a revolutionary change in individual human beings. This change of heart must be inspired by religion in order to generate the will power needed for putting arduous new ideals into practice." Jonathan Porritt, of Friends of the Earth

“Water flows from high in the mountains. Water funs deep in the Earth. Miraculously, water comes to us, and sustains all life.” Thich Nhat Hanh

“Only when we see that we are part of the totality of the planet, not a superior part with special privileges, can we seek effectively to bring about an earth restored to wholeness.” Elizabeth Watson

“The faith community has led every major movement in the US. No institution is more suited to preach clean air, water, and land than the institution that professes a love of God and God’s creation." Rev. Sally Bingham, National Director, IP&L

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