Quotes by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Explore a curated collection of 32 quotes by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Discover timeless wisdom, insightful thoughts, and memorable words that have inspired readers around the world. Browse through the gallery below and click on any quote to read more.

When a language dies, so much more than words are lost. Language is the dwelling place of ideas that do not exist anywhe — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Philosophers call this state of isolation and disconnection “species loneliness”—a deep, unnamed sadness stemming from e — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Swept away with the idea, he said it felt like an awakening to him. More like a remembering, I think. The animacy of the — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
We Americans are reluctant to learn a foreign language of our own species, let alone another species. But imagine the po — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
A bay is a noun only if water is dead. When bay is a noun, it is defined by humans, trapped between its shores and conta — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
The word ecology is derived from the Greek oikos, the word for home. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a ques — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
What we contemplate here is more than ecological restoration; it is the restoration of relationship between plants and p — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Joanna Macy writes that until we can grieve for our planet we cannot love it—grieving is a sign of spiritual health. But — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
caring is not abstract. The circle of ecological compassion we feel is enlarged by direct experience of the living world — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
To love a place is not enough. We must find ways to heal it. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
The ceremonies that persist—birthdays, weddings, funerals— focus only on ourselves, marking rites of personal transition — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
In the Western tradition there is a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top—the pinnacle — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Plants are also integral to reweaving the connection between land and people. A place becomes a home when it sustains yo — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Something is broken when the food comes on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in slippery plastic, a carcass of a being whose only — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Had the new people learned what Original Man was taught at a council of animals—never damage Creation, and never interfe — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Instead I just stand there, tears running down my cheeks in nameless emotion that tastes of joy and of grief. Joy for th — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Children, language, lands: almost everything was stripped away, stolen when you weren’t looking because you were trying — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Nanabozho also had the task to learn how to live from his elder brothers and sisters. When he needed food, he noticed wh — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
All powers have two sides, the power to create and the power to destroy. We must recognize them both, but invest our gif — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants