“A friend asked, "If increased awareness means less happiness, why bother?" No answer.” — Derrick Jensen Awareness Copy Share Image
We have a need for enchantment that is as deep and devoted as our need for food and water. — Derrick Jensen Enchantment Copy Share Image
“We've been making love these past two days by talking and I want for our bodies to join the conversation.” — Derrick Jensen Communication Copy Share Image
“I had broken the most basic commandment of our culture: Thou shalt pretend there is nothing wrong.” — Derrick Jensen Commandment Copy Share Image
We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls. — Derrick Jensen Culture Copy Share Image
a real partnership in which all parties help all others to be more fully themselves — Derrick Jensen Helping Copy Share Image
If you only had a limited time to life (which is of course the case), how would you spend your time? — Derrick Jensen Cases Copy Share Image
If we wish to stop the atrocities, we need merely to step away from the isolation. There is a whole world waiting… — Derrick Jensen Atrocities Copy Share Image
To pretend that civilization can exist without destroying its own landbase and the landbases and cultures of others is to be entirely… — Derrick Jensen Biology Copy Share Image
“I waited for him to come out. He didn't. I considered going in after him, but knew the fact that I had… — Derrick Jensen Animal - rights Copy Share Image
A culture that values production over life values the wrong things, because it will produce things at the expense of living beings,… — Derrick Jensen Being human Copy Share Image
The global industrial economy is the engine for massive environmental degradation and massive human (and nonhuman) impoverishment. — Derrick Jensen Degradation Copy Share Image
Where will you drive your own picket stake? Where will you choose to make your stand? Give me a threshold, a specific… — Derrick Jensen Fighting Copy Share Image
“White [...] "Indian wannabees" or as those who mine indiginous traditions the way multinationals mine their land.” — Derrick Jensen Culture Copy Share Image
“I'm frightened of the intellectualism that can insulate us from action and turn the problems and solutions into puzzles or fantasies.” — Derrick Jensen Frightened Copy Share Image
People say 'what do you mean' when you talk about 'bringing down civilization.' What I really mean is depriving the rich of… — Derrick Jensen Ability Copy Share Image
I want you to begin keeping a calendar of who you see and when: the first day each year you see buttercups,… — Derrick Jensen Attention Copy Share Image
“Someone asked me once at a talk why I so stress the positive with my students yet am such an unstinting critic… — Derrick Jensen Authority Copy Share Image
“If you’re comfortable with who you are, however, it becomes no problem to let others be their own selves around you: you… — Derrick Jensen Faith Copy Share Image
“Last December I saw an advertisement outside an electronics store. There was a little boy, delirious with delight, surrounded by computers, stereos,… — Derrick Jensen Advertisement Copy Share Image
All we want, whether we are honeybees, salmon, trash-collecting ants, ponderosa pines, coyotes, human beings, or stars, is to love and be… — Derrick Jensen Accepted Copy Share Image
“This book is about fighting back. The dominant culture -civilization- is killing the planet, and it is long past time for those… — Derrick Jensen Book Copy Share Image
There is a language older by far and deeper than words. It is the language of bodies, of body on body, wind… — Derrick Jensen Body Copy Share Image
“Death is, and must be, deeply emotional. To intentionally cause death is to engender a form of intimacy, one that we’re not… — Derrick Jensen Death Copy Share Image
“So often, environmentalists and others working to slow the destruction are capable of plainly describing the problems (Who wouldn’t be? The problems… — Derrick Jensen Committing Atrocities Copy Share Image
“The fundamental metaphor of National Socialism as it related to the world around it was the garden, not the wild forest. One… — Derrick Jensen Control Copy Share Image
“What if the point of life has nothing to do with the creation of an ever-expanding region of control? What if the… — Derrick Jensen Life Copy Share Image
“A primary purpose of school - and this is true for our culture's science and religion as well - is to lead… — Derrick Jensen Collective consciousness Copy Share Image
“Blasphemy is more complicated than the simple act of cursing God. It is an attempt to remove our cultural eyeglasses, or at… — Derrick Jensen Beyond the stars Copy Share Image
“Does anyone beside me experience a deep sorrow that someone called a "Hero for the Planet" and a "star of the sustainability… — Derrick Jensen Disgusted Copy Share Image
The pretense that humans are superior to nonhumans is entirely unsupportable. I have seen no compelling evidence that humans are particularly more… — Derrick Jensen Animal Copy Share Image
“The only real job of a teacher, especially a writing teacher, is to help students find themselves.” — Derrick Jensen Mentorship Copy Share Image
If your community is founded on an injustice, that injustice cannot be questioned. — Derrick Jensen Community Copy Share Image
From the beginning, this culture - civilization - has been a culture of occupation. — Derrick Jensen Civilization Copy Share Image
My audience consists mainly of people who already recognize how bad this culture is, and I want to push them to become… — Derrick Jensen Audience Copy Share Image
For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are… — Derrick Jensen Lies Copy Share Image
The task we all face as human beings ... is to find and become who we are. The task teachers face is… — Derrick Jensen Education Copy Share Image
We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive… — Derrick Jensen Activism Copy Share Image