Masanobu Fukuoka famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

If we throw mother nature out the window, she comes back in the door with a pitchfork.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Mother #Doors #Balance
In my opinion, if 100% of the people were farming it would be ideal. If each person were given one quarter-acre, that is 1 1/4 acres to a family of five, that would be more than enough land to support the family for the whole year. If natural farming were practiced, a farmer would also have plenty of time for leisure and social activities within the village community. I think this is the most direct path toward making this country a happy, pleasant land.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Country #Thinking #Years
The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Garden #Goal #Perfection
Ignorance, hatred and greed are killing nature.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Ignorance #Greed #Hatred
The simple hearth of the small farm is the true center of our universe.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Simple #Universe
I believe that even 'returning-to-nature' and anti pollution activities, no matter how commendable, are not moving toward a genuine solution if they are carried out solely in reaction to the over development of the present age.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Moving #Believe #Age
There is no one so great as the one who does not try to accomplish anything
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Trying #Doe #Accomplish
There is no time in modern agriculture for a farmer to write a poem or compose a song
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Song #Writing #Agriculture
The healing of the land and the purification of the human spirit is the same process.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Healing #Land #Spirit
When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Essence #Goal #Perfection
The increasing desolation of nature, the exhaustion of resources, the uneasiness and disintegration of the human spirit, all have been brought about by humanity's trying to accomplish something.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Humanity #Trying #Spirit
We have come to the point at which there is no other way than to bring about a 'movement' not to bring anything about
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Movement #Way
My ultimate dream is to sow seeds in the desert. To revegetate the deserts is to sow seed in people's hearts.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Dream #Heart #People
The irony is that science has served only to show how small human knowledge is.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Irony #Shows #Humans
Speaking biologically, fruit in a slightly shriveled state is holding its respiration and energy consumption down to the lowest possible level. It is like a person in meditation: his metabolism, respiration, and calorie consumption reach an extremely low level. Even if he fasts, the energy within the body will be conserved. In the same way, when mandarin oranges grow wrinkled, when fruit shrivels, when vegetables wilt, they are in the state that will preserve their food value for the longest possible time.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Vegetables #Orange #Meditation
Modern research divides nature into tiny pieces and conducts tests that conform neither with natural law nor with practical experience. The results are arranged for the convenience of research, not according to the needs of the farmer.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Law #Needs #Pieces
Many people think that when we practice agriculture, nature is helping us in our efforts to grow food. This is an exclusively human-centered viewpoint... we should instead, realize that we are receiving that which nature decides to give us. A farmer does not grow something in the sense that he or she creates it. That human is only a small part of the whole process by which nature expresses its being. The farmer has very little influence over that process... other than being there and doing his or her small part.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Thinking #Practice #Agriculture
We must find our way back to true nature. We must set ourselves to the task of revitalizing the earth. Regreening the earth, sowing seeds in the desert--that is the path society must follow.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Desert #Earth #Way
Giving up your ego is the shortest way to unification with nature.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Giving Up #Ego #Way
If you do not try to make food delicious, you will find that nature has made it so.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Trying #Made
I wonder how it is that people's philosophies have come to spin faster than the changing seasons.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Philosophy #People #Wonder
Farming is not just for growing crops, it is for the cultivation...o f human beings!
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Growing #Farming #Crops
When a decision is made to cope with the symptoms of a problem, it is generally assumed that the corrective measures will solve the problem itself. They seldom do. Engineers cannot seem to get this through their heads. These countermeasures are all based on too narrow a definition of what is wrong. Human measures and countermeasures proceed from limited scientific truth and judgment. A true solution can never come about in this way.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Decision #Balance #Definitions
As we kill nature, we are killing ourselves, and God incarnate as the world as well.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#World #Killing #Wells
Life on a small farm might seem primitive, but by living such a life we become able to discover the Great Path. I believe that one who deeply respects his neighborhood and everyday world in which he lives will be shown the greatest of all worlds.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Believe #Garden #Everyday
I believe that a revolution can begin from this one strand of straw. Seen at a glance, this rice straw may appear light and insignificant. Hardly anyone would believe that it could start a revolution. But I have come to realize the weight and power of this straw. For me, this revolution is very real.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Real #Believe #Light
Before researchers become researches they should become philosophers.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Research #Philosopher #Should
Gradually I came to realize that the process of saving the desert of the human heart and revegetating the actual desert is actually the same thing.
-- Masanobu Fukuoka

#Heart #Desert #Saving

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