My values are primarily motivated by love for other people. I value the non-human world in large part because it's so vital to human beings. Even my appreciation for wilderness grows out of an understanding of how important wilderness can be for people.

I don't think a worship of nature is necessary to mount a really strong defense of the environment.

Excess consumption doesn't make people happy. We can continue to provide for our needs, but we can't continue the endless pursuit of ever more consumer goods. There is no energy source that can provide enough consumer goods to meet our human and emotional needs there never has been, and that's why it's been such a fruitless pursuit.

If we want to change that status quo, we might have to work outside of those rules because the legal pathways available to us have been structured precisely to make sure we don’t make any substantial change.

That's why there is such alienation, depression, and despair in our society - because the means we're employing doesn't lead to the ends we desire, no matter how hard we work, nor how much stuff we accumulate.

My spiritual path has largely been Christianity - a label that I embraced and then rejected and have partially embraced again, as my understanding of Christianity has changed over time. When I accepted the mainstream, dogmatic definition of Christianity there came a point when I had to say, Well, if that's what a Christian is, I'm not one.

Our security doesn't come from turning away from the hard stuff it comes from the knowledge that we can handle it.

The reality is not that I lack respect for the law it's that I have greater respect for justice.

Civil disobedience is an act of love.

Religious communities have historically been designed to counteract the forces of alienation. That's why so many successful social movements have relied upon the strength of spiritual communities and a large base of their organizing has been through them.

I would never go to jail to protect animals or plants or wilderness. For me, it’s about the people.

It's really hard to change the world when your first priority is making sure that the little world around yourself doesn't change.