Quotes from Richard Louv

In an effort to value and structure time, some of us unintentionally may be killing dreamtime.

Nature—the sublime, the harsh, and the beautiful—offers something that the street or gated community or computer game cannot.

Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness. This disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.

For the young, food is from Venus; farming is from Mars

If no one ever tried anything, even what some folks say is impossible, no one would ever learn anything. So you just keep on trying and maybe some day you'll try something that will work.

The physical exercise and emotional stretching that children enjoy in unorganized play is more varied and less time-bound than is found in organized sports. Playtime—especially

Wilson defines biophilia as "the urge to affiliate with other forms of life.

Countless communities have virtually outlawed unstructured outdoor nature play, often because of the threat of lawsuits, but also because of a growing obsession with order. Many parents now believe outdoor play is verboten even when it is not; perception is nine-tenths of the law.

I have a soft spot in my heart for tree houses, which have always imparted certain magic and practical knowledge.

Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it.

Though we often see ourselves as separate from nature, humans are also part of that wildness.

one of the main benefits of spending time in nature is stress reduction.

Going out into nature was one outlet that I had, which truly allowed me to calm down and not think or worry.

I played around our yard some and talked to the fence posts, sung songs and made the weeds sing . . . —WOODY GUTHRIE

There is a canyon within a reasonable distance of nearly every school in the city," [Elaine Brooks] pointed out. What an exciting prospect, she said - a network of natural libraries for teaching children about the region's rare and fragile ecosystems - and about themselves.

These ecstatic moments of delight or fear, or both, "radioactive jewels buried within us, emitting energy across the years of our lives," as Chawla eloquently puts it, are most often experienced in nature during formative years.

this new frontier is characterized by at least five trends: a severance of the public and private mind from our food's origins; a disappearing line between machines, humans, and other animals; an increasingly intellectual understanding of our relationship with other animals; the invasion of our cities by wild animals (even as urban/suburban designers replace wildness with synthetic nature); and the rise of a new kind of suburban form.

Most scientists who study human perception no longer assume that we have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. The current number ranges from a conservative ten senses to as many as thirty, including blood-sugar levels, empty stomach, thirst, joint position, and more. The list is growing.

Something else was different when we were young: our parents were outdoors. I'm not saying they were joining health clubs and things of that sort, but they were out of the house, out on the porch, talking to neighbors. As far as physical fitness goes, today's kids are the sorriest generation in the history of the United States. Their parents may be out jogging, but the kids just aren't outside.

Our sensitivity to nature, and our humility within it, are essential to our physical and spiritual survival. Yet, our growing disconnection from nature dulls our senses, and eventually blunts even the sharpened sensory state created by man-made or natural disaster.

children in the "green" day care, who played outside every day, regardless of weather, had better motor coordination and more ability to concentrate.

There's no denying the benefits of the Internet. But electronic immersion, without a force to balance it, creates the hole in the boat — draining our ability to pay attention, to think clearly, to be productive and creative.

While outdoor activities in general help, settings with trees and grass are the most beneficial.

On average, the greener a girl's view from home, the better she concentrates, the less she acts impulsively, and the longer she can delay gratification.