Be in the world as though you were not in it (Berry)
July 27th, 2006 | Published in Work, Ecology, Quotes
A man should be in the world as though he were not in it, so that it will be no worse because of his life. His obligation may not be to make “a better world,” but the world certainly requires of him that he make it no worse. That, at least, was man’s moral circumstance before he began his ruinous attempt to “improve” the creation; now, perhaps, he is under and obligation to leave it better than he found it, by undoing some of the effects of his meddling and restoring its old initiatives—by making his absence the model of his presence.
–Wendell Berry, “The Long-Legged House” in The Long-Legged House (1969), pp. 165-166