Derrick Jensen Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Like the layers of an onion, under the first lie is another, and under that another, and they all make you cry.

  Derrick Jensen

  Lying, Onions, Layers

  Derrick Jensen (2012). “The Derrick Jensen Reader: Writings on Environmental Revolution”, p.36, Seven Stories Press

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• We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls.

  Derrick Jensen

  Soul, Culture, Sustainability

  Derrick Jensen (2006). “Endgame”, p.190, Seven Stories Press

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• We have a need for enchantment that is as deep and devoted as our need for food and water.

  Derrick Jensen

  Inspiring, Water, Enchantment

  Derrick Jensen (2002). “The Culture of Make Believe”, p.537, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• Yes, it's vital to make lifestyle choices to mitigate damage caused by being a member of industrialized civilization, but to assign primary responsibility to oneself, and to focus primarily on making oneself better, is an immense copout, an abrogation of responsibility.

  Derrick Jensen

  Responsibility, Civilization, Lifestyle Choices

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• If we hope to stem the mass destruction that inevitably attends our economic system (and to alter the sense of entitlement - the sense of contempt, the hatred - on which it is based), fundamental historical, social, economic, and technological forces need to be pondered, understood, and redirected. Behavior won't change much without a fundamental change in consciousness. The question becomes: How do we change consciousness?

  Derrick Jensen

  Mass Destruction, Hatred, Historical

  Derrick Jensen (2004). “The Culture of Make Believe”, p.295, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• To reverse the effects of civilization would destroy the dreams of a lot of people. There's no way around it. We can talk all we want about sustainability, but there's a sense in which it doesn't matter that these people's dreams are based on, embedded in, intertwined with, and formed by an inherently destructive economic and social system. Their dreams are still their dreams. What right do I -- or does anyone else -- have to destroy them. At the same time, what right do they have to destroy the world?

  Derrick Jensen

  Dream, Civilization, People

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• If we celebrate life with all its contradictions, embrace, experience, and ultimately live with it, a chance exists for a spiritual life filled not only with pain and untidiness, but also with joy, community, and creativity.

  Derrick Jensen

  Life, Spiritual, Pain

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• If we wish to stop the atrocities, we need merely to step away from the isolation. There is a whole world waiting for us, ready to welcome us home.

  Derrick Jensen

  Home, Waiting, Wish

  Derrick Jensen (2004). “A Language Older Than Words”, p.375, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• Premise Eight: The needs of the natural world are more important than the needs of the economic system.

  Derrick Jensen

  Eight, Important, Needs

  Derrick Jensen (2011). “Endgame, Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization”, p.6, Seven Stories Press

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• The task we all face as human beings ... is to find and become who we are. The task teachers face is to find their own way of teaching, one that manifests who they are.

  Derrick Jensen

  Teacher, Teaching, Tasks

  Derrick Jensen (2005). “Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution”, p.144, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• As is true for most people I know, I've always loved learning. As is also true for most people I know, I always hated school. Why is that?

  Derrick Jensen

  School, People, Hated

  Derrick Jensen (2005). “Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution”, p.3, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• a real partnership in which all parties help all others to be more fully themselves

  Derrick Jensen

  Marriage, Real, Party

  Derrick Jensen (2011). “Endgame, Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization”, p.146, Seven Stories Press

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• So long as we only believe in the justice of the state, of the law-made by those in power, to serve those in power-so long will we continue to be exploited by those in power.

  Derrick Jensen

  Believe, Law, Long

  Derrick Jensen (2006). “Endgame”, p.313, Seven Stories Press

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• Writing is really very easy. Tap a vein and bleed onto the page. Everything else is just technical.

  Derrick Jensen

  Writing, Veins, Pages

  Derrick Jensen (2005). “Walking on Water: Reading, Writing and Revolution”, p.62, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• I thought that, given the system of rewards central to our economic system, in which profit maximization is valued above all else and specifically above life, it is probably just as irresistible to the owners of capital (human or otherwise) to exploit workers (and the land): "Nothing personal," they say as they load their property onto the ship bound for the Middle Passage, "but a man's gotta turn a dime."

  Derrick Jensen

  Men, Land, Dimes

  Derrick Jensen (2002). “The Culture of Make Believe”, p.102, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• If any thing can be predicated as universally true of uncultivated man, it is that he will not labour beyond what is absolutely necessary to maintain his existence.

  Derrick Jensen

  Men, Existence, Ifs

  Derrick Jensen (2004). “The Culture of Make Believe”, p.59, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• Learning has to come from doing, not intellectualizing.

  Derrick Jensen

  Derrick Jensen (2004). “The Culture of Make Believe”, p.126, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• To believe Christianity stands in opposition to slavery is at best to think anachronistically and at worst to not understand Christianity.

  Derrick Jensen

  Believe, Thinking, Slavery

  Derrick Jensen (2002). “The Culture of Make Believe”

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• Civilization can never be sustainable.

  Derrick Jensen

  Civilization

  Derrick Jensen (2005). “Walking on Water: Reading, Writing and Revolution”, p.105, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• Casey Maddox wrote that when philosophy dies, action begins. I would say in addition that when we stop hoping for external assistance, when we stop hoping that the awful situation we're in will somehow resolve itself, when we stop hoping the situation will somehow not get worse, then we are finally free - truly free - to honestly start working to thoroughly resolve it. I would say when hope dies, action begins.

  Derrick Jensen

  Hope, Philosophy, Awful

  "Endgame Volume I: The Problem of Civilization". Book by Derrick Jensen, 2011.

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• When we realize the degree of agency we actually do have, we no longer have to "hope" at all. We simply do the work.

  Derrick Jensen

  Hope, Agency, Degrees

  Derrick Jensen (2006). “Endgame”, p.330, Seven Stories Press

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• A very poor kid came up to me after a talk and said 'I want to go blow up a factory.' I asked how old he was and he said 17. I said 'have you ever had sex?' He said 'no.' I said 'just remember if you get caught you aren't going to have sex for twenty years at least.' That's not saying that one person having sex is worth the salmon. I'm not saying it's a reason not to act, I'm saying don't be stupid.

  Derrick Jensen

  Sex, Stupid, Kids

  The Word Magazine Interview, March/April 2005.

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• I no longer see Descartes' statement as arbitrary. It is representative of our culture's narcissism. This narcissism leads to a disturbing disrespect for direct experience and a negation of the body.

  Derrick Jensen

  Disrespect, Culture, Arbitrary

  Derrick Jensen (2012). “The Derrick Jensen Reader: Writings on Environmental Revolution”, p.19, Seven Stories Press

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• A language Older Than Words

  Derrick Jensen

  Creativity, Understanding, Language

  Derrick Jensen (2004). “A Language Older Than Words”, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• By deafening ourselves to the emotional consequences of violence we have become confused by its relationship to sex. We have come to believe that violence equals aggression, and we have come to base our model of sexuality on our model of violence... converting an act of aggression into an act of consensual sexuality.

  Derrick Jensen

  Sex, Confused, Believe

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