The acquisition of knowledge always involves the revelation of ignorance-almost is the revelation of ignorance. Wendell Berry More Quotes by Wendell Berry More Quotes From Wendell Berry I prayed like a man walking in a forest at night, feeling his way with his hands, at each step fearing to fall into pure bottomlessness forever. Prayer is like lying awake at night, afraid, with your head under the cover, hearing only the beating of your own heart. Wendell Berry prayerlyingfall I don't think I had even begun to have an idea where I was going, but wherever it was, that was where I wanted to go. Wendell Berry wantedideasthinking I think of the old slavery, and of the way The Economy has now improved upon it. The new slavery has improved upon the old by giving the new slaves the illusion that they are free. The Economy does not take people's freedom by force, which would be against its principles, for it is very humane. It buys their freedom, pays for it, and then persuades its money back again with shoddy goods and the promise of freedom. "Buy a car," it says, "and be free. Buy a boat and be free." Is this not the raw material of bad dreams? Or is it maybe the very nightmare itself? Wendell Berry dreampeoplethinking To define knowledge as merely empirical is to limit one's ability to know; it enfeebles one's ability to feel and think. Wendell Berry abilitylimitsthinking I like the way that the history of the tree shapes the tree. There's no distinction between the tree and its history. You can lose yourself in that thought. Wendell Berry shapestreeway Obviously, if Christianity is going to survive as more than a respecter and comforter of profitable inquiries, then Christians, regardless of their organizations, are going to have to interest themselves in economy-which is to say, in nature and in work. They are going to have to give workable answers to those who say we cannot live without this economy that is destroying us and our world, who see the murder of Creation as the only way of life. Wendell Berry our-worldorganizationchristian He never complained. He seemed to have no instinct for the making much of oneself that complaining requires. Wendell Berry oneselfinstinctcomplaining The hierarchy of power is not the same as the hierarchy of value. A good human is higher than the animals on both scales; an evil human is high on the scale of power, but at the very bottom of the scale of values. Wendell Berry hierarchyevilanimal Those who say Islam is a warlike religion must ask if Christianity has been as well. Wendell Berry islamchristianitypeace A change of heart or of values without a practice is only another pointless luxury of a passively consumptive way of life. Wendell Berry luxurypracticeheart ... it is not a crisis of our environs or surroundings; it is a crisis of our lives as individuals, as family members, as community members, and as citizens. We have an 'environmental crisis' because we have consented to an economy in which by eating, drinking, working, resting, traveling, and enjoying ourselves we are destroying the natural, god-given world. Wendell Berry environmentalcommunitydrinking Specialization is the great evil of civilization. Wendell Berry specializationevilcivilization We conservatives bemoan the decline in values that has besieged our society. Why then should we not abhor the lack of morality involved in discharging untested chemicals into the air, ground, and water to alter and harm, to whatever degree, human life and wildlife? As a conservative, I do abhor it. Wendell Berry degreesairwater There are endless ways to amuse oneself and be idle, and most of them lie outside the woods. I assume that when a man goes to the woods he goes because he needs to. I think he is drawn to the wilderness much as he is drawn to a woman: it is, in its way, his opposite. It is as far as possible unlike his home or his work or anything he will ever manufacture. For that reason he can take from it a solace-an understanding of himself, of what he needs and what he can do without-such as he can find nowhere else. Wendell Berry homemenlying The more local and settled a culture, the better it stays put, the less the damage. It is the foreigner whose road of excess leads to a desert... a man with a machine and inadequate culture... is a pestilence. He shakes more than he can hold. Wendell Berry pestilencedamagemen The issue here really is not whether international trade shall be free but whether or not it makes any sense for a country - or, for that matter, a region - to destroy its own capacity to produce its own food. How can a government, entrusted with the safety and health of its people, conscientiously barter away in the name of an economic idea that people's ability to feed itself? And if people lose their ability to feed themselves, how can they be said to be free? Wendell Berry namescountryideas It would take me years of reading, thought, and experience to learn again that in this world limits are not only inescapable but indispensable. Wendell Berry readingworldyears We can make ourselves whole only by accepting our partiality, by living within our limits, by being humans not by trying to be gods. Wendell Berry limitssimpletrying You don't need to be told some things. You can sometimes tell more by a man's silence and the set of his head than by what he says. Wendell Berry silencemenneeds To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Wendell Berry lightdarkknows
