Quote

Progress does not have to be patented to be worthwhile. Progress can also be measured by our interactions with nature and its preservation. Can we teach children to look at a flower and see all the things it represents: beauty, the health of an ecosystem, and the potential for healing?

Richard Louv

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Richard Louv
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: January 1
Author
Journalist
Writer
Children
Progress
Represents
Things
Teach
Interaction
Beauty
Worthwhile
Patented
Nature
Environmental
Ecosystem
Also
Potential
Interactions
Doe
Healing
Ecosystems
Look
Flower
Measured
Looks
Health
Preservation

More quotes by Richard Louv

Image
Nature introduces children to the idea—to the knowing—that they are not alone in this world, and that realities and dimensions exist alongside their own.
Richard Louv
Image
All spiritual life begins with a sense of wonder, and nature is a window into that wonder.
Richard Louv
Image
As a species, we are most animated when our days and nights on Earth are touched by the natural world. We can find immeasurable joy in the birth of a child, a great work of art, or falling in love.
Richard Louv
Image
The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.
Richard Louv
Image
Stress reduction, greater physical health, a deeper sense of spirit, more creativity, a sense of play, even a safer life-these are the rewards that await a family then it invites more nature into children's lives.
Richard Louv
Image
To take nature and natural play away from children may be tantamount to withholding oxygen.
Richard Louv
Image
Nature-the sublime, the harsh, and the beautiful-offers something that the street or gated community or computer game cannot. Nature presents the young with something so much greater than they are it offers an environment where they can easily contemplate infinity and eternity.
Richard Louv
Image
If getting our kids out into nature is a search for perfection, or is one more chore, then the belief in perfection and the chore defeats the joy. It's a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children it's even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it's a lot more fun.
Richard Louv
Image
From 1997 to 2003, there was a decline of 50 percent in the proportion of children nine to twelve who spent time in such outside activities as hiking, walking, fishing, beach play, and gardening, according to a study by Sandra Hofferth at the University of Maryland.
Richard Louv
Image
What if more and more parents, grandparents and kids around the country band together to create outdoor adventure clubs, family nature networks, family outdoor clubs, or green gyms? What if this approach becomes the norm in every community?
Richard Louv
Image
Kids are plugged into some sort of electronic medium 44 hours per week.
Richard Louv
Image
Studies of children in playgrounds with both green areas and manufactured play areas found that children engaged in more creative forms of play in the green areas.
Richard Louv
Image
If a child never sees the stars, never has meaningful encounters with other species, never experiences the richness of nature, what happens to that child?
Richard Louv
Image
We can conserve energy and tread more lightly on the Earth while we expand our culture's capacity for joy.
Richard Louv
Image
American family life has never been particularly idyllic. In the nineteenth century, nearly a quarter of all children experienced the death of one of their parents.... Not until the sixties did the chief cause of separation of parents shift from death to divorce.
Richard Louv
Image
Nature is beautiful, but not always pretty.
Richard Louv
Image
Now, my tree-climbing days long behind me, I often think about the lasting value of those early, deliciously idle days. I have come to appreciate the long view afforded by those treetops. The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.
Richard Louv
Image
Reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.
Richard Louv
Image
Time in nature is not leisure time it's an essential investment in our chidlren's health (and also, by the way, in our own).
Richard Louv
Image
Time spent in nature is the most cost-effective and powerful way to counteract the burnout and sort of depression that we feel when we sit in front of a computer all day.
Richard Louv