Green Inspiration on a Dime

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Libraries looking to inspire and engage their patrons and staff on the environment might want to consider using the power and timeless wisdom of quotes. I’ve compiled a short list of eco-friendly ones that inspire me and remind me of the role that I play in the well-being of our planet.

Some places to put them include free wall space, book marks, on bulletin boards, above your library’s copy machine, over hand dryers in washrooms, stairwells, elevators, in each issue of your library’s newsletter, and on your library’s home page.  I’m sure that you can think of a few more!  

“Don’t blow it - good planets are hard to find.”  ~ unknown, quoted in Time

“It is our collective and individual responsibility to protect and nurture the global family, to support its weaker members and to preserve and tend to the environment in which we all live.” ~ Dalai Lama

“Our planet’s alarm is going off, and it is time to wake up and take action!” ~ actor Leonardo DiCaprio

“A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~ physicist Albert Einstein

“We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.” ~ inventor R. Buckminster Fuller

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” ~ primatologist Jane Goodall

“I feel more confident than ever that the power to save the planet rests with the individual consumer.” ~ Denis Hayes, coordinator for the first Earth Day.