“We do not inherit the Earth from our parents. We borrow her from our children.”

“We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

“We rich nations, for that is what we are, have an obligation not only to the poor nations, but to all the grandchildren of the world, rich and poor. We have not inherited this earth from our parents to do with it what we will. We have borrowed it from our children and we must be careful to use it in their interests as well as our own. Anyone who fails to recognise the basic validity of the proposition put in different ways by increasing numbers of writers, from Malthus to The Club of Rome, is either ignorant, a fool, or evil.”

“We are the children of the earth and removed from her our spirit withers.”

“First we are children to our parents, then parents to our children, then parents to our parents, then children to our children”

“We can believe in the future and work to achieve it and preserve it, or we can whirl blindly on, behaving as if one day there will be no children to inherit our legacy. The choice is ours; the earth is in balance.”