Wendell Berry Quotes

A collection of quotes by Wendell Berry.

Wendell Berry is an American author, poet, environmental activist, farmer, and cultural critic. He was born on August 5, 1934, in Henry County, Kentucky. Berry grew up on his family's farm, where he developed a deep connection with the land and a keen awareness of its importance.

After earning a degree in English from the University of Kentucky, Berry pursued a career in writing, publishing numerous novels, poems, essays, and short stories which explore themes such as agrarianism, conservation, community, and the relationship between humans and nature. His works often reflect his unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable agriculture, advocating for a balance between human needs and the well-being of the land.

Beyond his literary contributions, Wendell Berry has been actively involved in environmental activism and has spoken out against industrial agriculture and the degradation of rural communities. He has been a prominent voice against the exploitation of natural resources and the detrimental effects of modernization.

Throughout his life, Berry has received several prestigious awards, including the National Humanities Medal and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His writing continues to inspire and challenge readers as he encourages a return to a profound respect for the land and the importance of sustainable practices.

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their li

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

We cannot know the whole truth, which belongs to God alone,

We cannot know the whole truth, which belongs to God alone, but our task nevertheless is to seek to know what is true. And if we offend gravely enough against what we know to be true, as by failing badly enough to deal affectionately and responsibly with our land and our neighbors, truth will retaliate with ugliness, poverty, and disease.

To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of

To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and others to want.

Life Food Creation Creatures Sacrament

Novelty is a new kind of loneliness.

Novelty is a new kind of loneliness.

Fear Truth Spirituality Consumerism Depression Civilization Loneliness Culture Anxiety Novelty Seeking

What I stand for is what I stand on.

What I stand for is what I stand on.

Inspirational Clever

...And we pray, not for newearth or heaven, but to be quieti

...And we pray, not for newearth or heaven, but to be quietin heart, and in eye clear.What we need is here.

We walked always in beauty, it seemed to me. We walked and l

We walked always in beauty, it seemed to me. We walked and looked about, or stood and looked. Sometimes, less often, we would sit down. We did not often speak. The place spoke for us and was a kind of speech. We spoke to each other in the things we saw.

Beauty Speech Woods

We know enough of our own history by now to be aware that pe

We know enough of our own history by now to be aware that people exploit what they have merely concluded to be of value, but they defend what they love. To defend what we love we need a particularizing language, for we love what we particularly know.

Love People Language History

I took her into bed with me and propped myself up with pillo

I took her into bed with me and propped myself up with pillows against the headboard to let her nurse. As she nursed and the milk came, she began a little low contented sort of singing. I would feel milk and love flowing from me to her as once it had flowed to me. It emptied me. As the baby fed, I seemed slowly to grow empty of myself, as if in the presence of that long flow of love even grief could not stand.

Love Motherhood Nursing

Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in th

Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.

History overflows time. Love overflows the allowance of the

History overflows time. Love overflows the allowance of the world. All the vessels overflow, and no end or limit stays put. Every shakable thing has got to be shaken. In a sense, nothing that was ever lost in Port William ever has been replaced. In another sense, nothing is ever lost, and we are compacted together forever, even by our failures, our regrets, and our longings.

Time Love History Community

Sometimes I knew in all my mind and heart why I had done wha

Sometimes I knew in all my mind and heart why I had done what I had done, and I welcomed the sacrifice. But there were times too when I lived in a desert and felt no joy and saw no hope and could not remember my old feelings. Then I lived by faith alone, faith without hope.What good did I get from it? I got to have love in my heart.

As industrial technology advances and enlarges, and in the p

As industrial technology advances and enlarges, and in the process assumes greater social, economic, and political force, it carries people away from where they belong by history, culture, deeds, association and affection.

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of suppl

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.

Akin to the idea that time is money is the concept, less spo

Akin to the idea that time is money is the concept, less spoken but as commonly assumed, that we may be adequately represented by money. The giving of money has thus become our characteristic virtue. But to give is not to do. The money is given in lieu of action, thought, care, time.

Urban conservationists may feel entitled to be unconcerned a

Urban conservationists may feel entitled to be unconcerned about food production because they are not farmers. But they can't be let off so easily, for they are all farming by proxy.

I am not bound for any public place, but for ground of my ow

I am not bound for any public place, but for ground of my own where I have planted vines and orchard trees, and in the heat of the day climbed up into the healing shadow of the woods.

Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is par

Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.

To be interested in food but not in food production is clear

To be interested in food but not in food production is clearly absurd.

The past is our definition. We may strive with good reason t

The past is our definition. We may strive with good reason to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it. But we will escape it only by adding something better to it.