Michael Tobias famous quotes

We often speak of "deep ecology," but this is also Deep Eco-Psychology: how the environment can remind us of, and help mend, mental and psychic wounds.
-- Michael Tobias

#Helping #Speak #Environment

Any rational human being is horrified and existentially baffled by the reality of the Holocaust meted out by the Nazis, by the majority of Germans throughout the 1930s and World War II; and by the countless countries, communities and individuals who collaborated with the vast constellation of Hitler's monsters in the gruesome murder of well over 60% of European Jewry. Codex Orféo reminds us that the root of that insanity is continuing in the form of contemporary Holocausts against other species, with equally systematic, atrocious and inexplicable madness.
-- Michael Tobias

#Country #War #Reality

I find contemporary Holocausts against other species so unbearable as to make life itself a fundamental question mark. Are we a demonic, suicidal species? Can good conquer evil? And if so, when will that renaissance of virtue occur? This is truly "psychology today."
-- Michael Tobias

#Suicidal #Evil #Holocaust

Non-violent ecological activism, scientific research and art are pillars of my experience. But I am also a story-teller. I merge science, and my passion for literature whenever possible if it helps me to wrestle demons, and to more effectively communicate what I believe to be most important to our lives.
-- Michael Tobias

#Art #Believe #Passion

When you ask about "mission" it is easy to reference a "mission statement" which, in my case, is the quest, however Quixotic, at times, to sensitize everyone I am in contact with to the miracle of life on Earth, and our sacred responsibilities to preserve, protect and revere biodiversity, at every possible juncture of our days and nights. We have very little time.
-- Michael Tobias

#Responsibility #Night #Miracle

I write both, as you know, dozens of ecological and social scientific and historical works, dozens of novels. It's hard to describe a novel that grapples with the horrors of World War II as anything but grueling. But Codex Orféo is somehow...well, I hope, riveting for readers. Deeply provocative. Cinematic in a nearly surreal sense.
-- Michael Tobias

#War #Writing #Historical

The Holocaust most assuredly challenges any and all faith in God. Faith in humanity. Faith in nature. Faith in the future. I don't "tell" young people anything. I ask them to consider many things, particularly, their assumptions regarding their natural obligations to be loving towards all living beings. Many of my works - both literary and film - are fictional, like Codex Orféo. And that's because the genre has always allowed me to suggest things that are opinions, spiritual impulses and intuitions, not necessarily provable.
-- Michael Tobias

#Spiritual #People #Holocaust

Poetry, song, stories, art, our reverence for nature, are key to our survival as a species, and to the survival of all species, I believe. You can't always extract such emphatic hunches and activist stances from a scientific maxim or mathematical axiom.
-- Michael Tobias

#Song #Art #Believe

Codex Orféo is something you won't see coming at you, but it does. It's all about kindness to other species, and to one another. If we can work that out, the world will take care of herself.
-- Michael Tobias

#Kindness #World #Care

I knew that even if I was able to call for help, I was in a place so remote that it wasn't likely there would be anyone who could help me. And even if there were, it could take weeks.

I am but God's finger, John. If he would condemn Elizabeth, she will be condemned.

You can't help the poor by being one of them.

When I pass, speak freely of my shortcomings and my flaws. Learn from them, for I'll have no ego to injure.

We reached the point where weapons should go silent and ideas speak.

I willingly speak to those who know, but for those who do not know I forget.

Surgery is just stabbing in a courteous environment

Thousands of women are crushed and made inarticulate by that system and never develop as their natures would force them to develop were they in a decent environment.

It is necessary, in this world, to be made of harder stuff than one's environment.

Children who are respected learn respect. Children who are cared for learn to care for those weaker than themselves. Children who are loved for what they are cannot learn intolerance. In an environment such as this, they will develop their own ideals, which can be nothing other than humane, since they grew out of the experience of love.