Anyone who ever studied mankind by listening to them was self-deluded. The first thing they should have done was to answer the question, "Can they report to you correctly on their behavior?" And the answer is, "No, the poor bastards cannot." Bill Mollison More Quotes by Bill Mollison More Quotes From Bill Mollison We ourselves are part of a guild of species that lie within and without our bodies. Aboriginal peoples and the Ayurvedic practitioners of ancient India have names for such guilds, or beings made up (as we are) of two or more species forming one organism. Most of nature is composed of groups of species working interdependently. Bill Mollison names two lying Permaculture is something with a million heads. It's a way of thinking which is already loose, and you can't put a way of thinking back in the box. Bill Mollison boxes way thinking The extinction rate is so huge now, we're to the stage where we've got to set up recombinant ecologies. There are no longer enough species left, anywhere, to hold the system together. Bill Mollison extinction enough together Use all the skills you have in relation to others - and that way we can do anything. Bill Mollison skills use way There are only four things in all cleaners - whether it's shampoo, laundry detergent, whatever.You buy them in bulk and you mix them up properly, and they all work. It doesn't matter if they call the stuff ecologically friendly or have dolphins diving around on the label - it still has these damn four things in it. Anything else is just unnecessary additions to make it smell good or color it blue when it goes down the toilet. Bill Mollison smell color blue Most modern homes are simply uninhabitable without electricity - you couldn't flush the toilet without it. It's a huge dependency situation. Bill Mollison modern toilets home If people want some guidance, I say, just look at what people really do. Don't listen to them that much. Bill Mollison want people looks At least half of every city is wrong. From latitude 30 degrees to latitude 60, say, you've got to have the long axis of the house facing the sun. If the land is cut up into squares, that makes half of all houses wrong if they face the road. Even houses way in the country, and way off the road, face the bloody road. And from there, you just go wronger all the way. Bill Mollison cutting squares country Anything that's left that's remotely like wilderness should be left strictly alone. We have no business there any more. It's not going to save you to go in and cut the last old-stand forests. Bill Mollison cutting lasts forests The end result of the adoption of permaculture strategies in any country or region will be to dramatically reduce the area of the agricultural environment needed by the households and the settlements of people, and to release much of the landscape for the sole use of wildlife and for re-occupation by endemic flora. Bill Mollison adoption country people Permaculture creates a cultivated ecology, which is designed to produce more human and animal food than is generally found in nature. Bill Mollison produce found animal You can't live like a Bushman or an Aborigine anymore, so they've got to rethink the whole basis of how they're going to live. Permaculture helps you do that easily. Bill Mollison bushmen permaculture helping If you get someone who looks after himself and those around him, that's a deep ecologist. He can talk philosophy that I understand. People like that don't poison things, they don't ruin things, they don't lose soils, they don't build things they can't sustain. Bill Mollison poison philosophy people We don't have any power of creation - we have only the power of assembly. So you just stand there and watch things connect to each other, in some amazement actually. You start by doing something right, and you watch it get more right than you thought possible. Bill Mollison assembly creation watches I probably lead a very spoiled life, because I travel from people interested in permaculture to people interested in permaculture. Some of them are tribal, and some of them are urban, and so on. Bill Mollison urban spoiled people When the idea of permaculture came to me, it was like a shift in the brain, and suddenly I couldn't write it down fast enough. Bill Mollison brain writing ideas Type 1 Error: When we settle into wilderness, we are in conflict with so many life forms that we have to destroy them to exist. Keep out of the bush. It is already in good order. Bill Mollison conflict errors order Women spend the money of society on its goods. Bill Mollison goods We have to rethink how we're going to live on this earth - stop talking about the fact that we've got to have agriculture, we've got to have exports, because all that is the death of us. Bill Mollison agriculture earth talking "Should we tamper with nature?" is no longer a question - we've tampered with nature on the whole face of the Earth. Bill Mollison should earth faces
