QUOTES by Wangari Maathai
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African women in general need to know that it's OK for them to be the way they are - to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
There's a general culture in this country to cut all the trees. It makes me so angry because everyone is cutting and no one is planting.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
It would be good for us Africans to accept ourselves as we are and recapture some of the positive aspects of our culture.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Women are responsible for their children, they cannot sit back, waste time and see them starve.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
That's the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree. And so I got an indigenous tree, called Nandi flame, it has this beautiful red flowers. When it is in flower it is like it is in flame.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
I know there is pain when sawmills close and people lose jobs, but we have to make a choice. We need water and we need these forests.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Some say that AIDS came from the monkeys, and I doubt that because we have been living with monkeys from time immemorial, others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
It's a matter of life and death for this country. The Kenyan forests are facing extinction and it is a man-made problem.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
No matter who or where we are, or what our capabilities, we are called to do the best we can.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
First of all, farmers should work with universities and research institutions in the country, and hopefully with the government.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
If you make mistakes that is alright because we all make mistakes and we learn from those mistakes. You gain confidence from learning, failing and rising again.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
I don't believe [Africa] is ready to shift - and she needs to shift. So she needs to get the technology and she can only get that technology from the developed world.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
The issue of carbon is one area where we really need to work together and if people don't have the technology they need, that technology needs to be made available and affordable.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Those of us who have been privileged to receive education, skills, and experiences and even power must be role models for the next generation of leadership.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Once people see that you improve you life if you are educated, then education becomes a valuable tool and people want it.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
The living conditions of the poor must be improved if we really want to save our environment
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
What I am trying to say is that they need to learn to rely on themselves and to learn from other people, and when you learn something from other people, then you keep moving onward for yourself.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Nobody in the world is completely dependent on another person, but we are all interdependent.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
The developed world should be willing to help [Africa] and support her and make this energy affordable.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Disempowerment - whether defined in terms of a lack of self-confidence , apathy, fear, or an inability to take charge of one's own life - is perhaps the most unrecognised problem in Africa today.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
It was easy for me to be ridiculed and for both men and women to perceive that maybe I'm a bit crazy because I'm educated in the West and I have lost some of my basic decency as an African woman.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
It is wonderful when you don't have the fear, and a lot of the time I don't ... I focus on what needs to be done instead.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
I'm sure that many people who are involved in an environmental effort ... they will be pretty much encouraged by this recognition.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Resources on the planet are limited, and limited resources can come to an end. But there are also a lot of resources that are renewable. A lot of land, for example, can be reclaimed from the encroaching deserts.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Unfortunately, the issues of climate change, unlike many other issues, are very subtle because the changes we observe are very, very subtle.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
It is important to nurture any new ideas and initiatives which can make a difference for Africa.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
In Kenya women are the first victims of environmental degradation, because they are the ones who walk for hours looking for water, who fetch firewood, who provide food for their families.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
And so I'm saying that, yes, colonialism was terrible, and I describe it as a legacy of wars, but we ought to be moving away from that by now.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Sometimes we become bound by other people's thoughts because we are not sure about ourselves.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
Because I was a woman, I was vulnerable. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman.'
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
The way in which we can promote peace, is by promoting sustainable management of our resources, equitable distribution of these resources, and that the only way you can actually do that, is that then you have to have a political, economic system that facilitates that. And then you get into the issues of human rights, justice, economic justice, social justice, and good governance or democratic governance. That's how it ties up.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
It's the little things citizens do. That's what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
You can make a lot of speeches, but the real thing is when you dig a hole, plant a tree, give it water, and make it survive. That's what makes the difference
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself. That values itself. That understands itself.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
It gradually became clear that the Green Belt Movement's work with communities to repair the degraded environment could not be done effectively without participants embracing a set of core spiritual values.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai
The generation that destroys the environment is not the generation that pays the price. That is the problem.
Quote by -Wangari Maathai