Quotes from Masanobu Fukuoka

If we throw mother nature out the window, she comes back in the door with a pitchfork.

Giving up your ego is the shortest way to unification with nature.

As we kill nature, we are killing ourselves, and God incarnate as the world as well.

The final principle of natural farming is NO PESTICIDES. Nature is in perfect balance when left alone.

Ignorance, hatred and greed are killing nature.

A farmer does not grow something in the sense that he or she creates it. That human is only a small part of the whole process by which nature expresses its being.

If you do not try to make food delicious, you will find that nature has made it so.

If a farmer does abandon his or her "tame" fields completely to nature, mistakes and destruction are inevitable.

The greening of the desert means sowing seeds in people's hearts and creating a green paradise of peace on earth.

The irony is that science has served only to show how small human knowledge is.

We must find our way back to true nature. We must set ourselves to the task of revitalizing the earth. Regreening the earth, sowing seeds in the desert--that is the path society must follow.

Left alone, the earth maintains its own fertility, in accordance with the orderly cycle of plant and animal life.

There is no time in modern agriculture for a farmer to write a poem or compose a song

We receive our nourishment from the Mother Earth. So we should put our hands together in an attitude of prayer and say "please" and "thank you" when dealing with nature.

The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

Before researchers become researches they should become philosophers.

Food and medicine are not two different things: the are the front and back of one body.

In my opinion, if 100% of the people were farming it would be ideal. If each person were given one quarter-acre, that is 1 1/4 acres to a family of five, that would be more than enough land to support the family for the whole year. If natural farming were practiced, a farmer would also have plenty of time for leisure and social activities within the village community. I think this is the most direct path toward making this country a happy, pleasant land.

Food and medicine are not two different things: they are the front and back of one body. Chemically grown vegetables may be eaten for food, but they cannot be used as medicine.

Modern research divides nature into tiny pieces and conducts tests that conform neither with natural law nor with practical experience. The results are arranged for the convenience of research, not according to the needs of the farmer.

But intending to understand ten things, you actually do not understand even one. If you know a hundred flowers you do not "know" a single one.

At first people ate simply because they were alive and because food was tasty. Modern people have come to think that if they do not prepare food with elaborate seasonings, the meal will be tasteless. If you do not try to make food delicious, you will find that nature has made it so.

I wonder how it is that people's philosophies have come to spin faster than the changing seasons.