Paul Hawken Quotes

When you pollute a river, it's a supreme injustice to those who are downstream and those who live in the river who are not human beings.

What we already know frames what we see, and what we see frames what we understand.

The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer.

The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them.

What we are missing, utterly and completely, in this government is accountability.

Trees are being saved because of the Kindle.

The self-owned and -operated business is the freest life in the world.

I'd rather fail at something important than succeed at something trivial.

What a great time to be born, what a great time to be alive, because this generation gets to completely change this world.

Being a good human being is good business.

Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

Business is destroying the world, with flair, expertise, and panache.

Capitalism, as practiced, is a financially profitable, non-sustainable aberration in human development.

All is connected ... no one thing can change by itself.

In short, industrialism is over.

A local company has more accountability.

At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product.

You are Brilliant and the Earth is Hiring

Don't go to business school.

Wrong is an addictive, repetitive story; Right is where the movement is.

If there is to be an ecologically sound society, it will have to come the grass roots up, not from the top down.

First we need to decide what needs to be done. Then we do it. And then we ask if it is possible.

Mother's milk would be banned by the food safety laws of industrialized nations if it were sold as a packaged good.

Luck is earned. Luck is working so hard at your craft, service or enterprise that sooner or later you get a break.

We can no longer prosper by increasing human productivity. The more we try to do, the more poverty we will create.

Sustainability, ensuring the future of life on Earth, is an infinite game, the endless expression of generosity on behalf of all.

Being in business is not about making money. It is a way to become who you are.

Most floods are caused by man, not weather; deforestation, levee construction, erosion, and overgrazing all result in the loss of ecosystem services.

There is no cost difference between incarceration and an Ivy League education; the main difference is curriculum.

There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.

Somewhere along the way to free-market capitalism, the United States became the most wasteful society on the planet.

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Civilization needs a new operating system.

It costs the same to send a person to prison or to Harvard. The difference is the curriculum.

We are the only species on this planet without full employment.

Biological diversity is messy. It walks, it crawls, it swims, it swoops, it buzzes. But extinction is silent, and it has no voice other than our own.

We are speeding up our lives and working harder in a futile attempt to buy the time to slow down and enjoy it.

The promise of business is to increase the general well-being of humankind through service, a creative invention and ethical philosophy.

We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy Earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it.

You can print money to bail out a bank, but you can't print life to bail out a planet.

How much harm does a company have to do before we question its right to exist?

Green business is not about tie-dyed T-shirts. It's about transforming the industrial system itself into one that looks at all the connections.

Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich