Quotes from Richard Louv

The greener the setting, the more the relief.

Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses. Given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods, wash it in the creek, turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of that confusion.

Television remains the most effective thief of time.

The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not.

To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or seaside stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. —THOMAS HUXLEY

to Nancy Wells, assistant professor of design and environmental analysis in the New York State College of Human Ecology at Cornell. "And the protective impact of nearby nature is strongest for the most vulnerable children—those experiencing the highest levels of stressful life events.

Children with more nature near their homes also rated themselves higher than their corresponding peers on a global measure of self-worth. "Even in a rural setting with a relative abundance of green landscape, more [nature] appears to be better when it comes to bolstering children's resilience against stress or adversity

As an adult, giving presentations at local high schools, I noticed that I can get teenagers to focus and calm down by showing images of the natural world. Being close to nature saved my life.

spare time in the garden, either digging, setting out or weeding; there is no better way to preserve your health.

Freud regarded childhood as a time in which our lowest, most animalistic impulses are strongest.

Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.

Nature offers a well from which many, famous or not, draw a creative sense of pattern and connection.

To me, still being considered a kid, it can't be too much to ask. We should have the same rights as adults did when they were young.

whatever shape nature takes, it offers each child an older, larger world separate from parents. Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it.

This seems clear enough: When truly present in nature, we do use all our senses at the same time, which is the optimum state of learning.

The pleasure of being alive is brought into sharper focus when you need to pay attention to staying alive. Alive in the larger universe, alive in time.

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.

For a new generation, nature is more abstraction than reality.

isolated patches of wild land are valuable to know, as are isolated people.

Until recently, most environmental organizations offered only token attention to children. Perhaps their lack of zeal stems from an unconscious ambivalence about children, who symbolize or represent overpopulation. So goes the unspoken mantra: We have met the enemy and it is our progeny.

just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they may very well need contact with nature.

nature can help people recover from "normal psychological wear and tear"—

You probably learned from your failures more than from success.

you can solve any large or complex problem by breaking it down into smaller, simpler problems.