In a competitive world of limited resources, total freedom of individual action is intolerable

But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.

You cannot do only one thing.

(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)

No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.

People are the quintessential element in all technology... Once we recognize the inescapable human nexus of all technology our attitude toward the reliability problem is fundamentally changed.

Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.

Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming.

Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

The only thing we can really count on in this uncertain world is human unreliability itself.

Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.

Thinking and planning is one side of life

The laugh left a bitter taste in our mouths, but we laughed out all the same.

There is a reason that the words natural, wholesome, and organic resonate throughout our culture today. Aim to be natural and truly who you are one-hundred percent of the time.

Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to everyone about you and you will be surprised what a happy life you will lead.

You don't need a critic to tell you people aren't laughing.

It would be a foetus of monarchy!

I do still get the odd fan letter about The Good Life, clearly written by somebody aged 18, who says: Will you send a photograph? And I think: Maybe it's kinder not to. I'm deeply into my 50s now.

Misers get up early in the morning; and burglars, I am informed, get up the night before.

Sorry wastes time. You have to live your life like you'll never be sorry. It's easier just to do the right thing from the start so there's nothing to apologize for.

In this earth, in this immaculate field, we shall not plant any seeds except for compassion, except for love.