Wangari Muta Maathai Quotes

Non siate timorosi di parlare, quando sapete di essere nel giusto. La paura non è mai stata fonte di sicurezza. Parlate chiaramente e lottate per i vostri diritti, finché potete.

Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking.

When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and hope.

Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own - indeed to embrace the whole of creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder. Recognizing that sustainable development, democracy and peace are indivisible is an idea whose time has come

There comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness . . . that time is now.

What people see as fearlessness is really persistence.

Throughout my life, I have never stopped to strategize about my next steps. I often just keep walking along, through whichever door opens. I have been on a journey and this journey has never stopped. When the journey is acknowledged and sustained by those I work with, they are a source of inspiration, energy and encouragement. They are the reasons I kept walking, and will keep walking, as long as my knees hold out.

I kept stumbling and falling and stumbling and falling as I searched for the good. 'Why?' I asked myself. Now I believe that I was on the right path all along, particularly with the Green Belt Movement, but then others told me that I shouldn't have a career, that I shouldn't raise my voice, that women are supposed to have a master. That I needed to be someone else. Finally I was able to see that if I had a contribution I wanted to make, I must do it, despite what others said. That I was OK the way I was. That it was all right to be strong.

(WHAT'S THE PLANET'S BIGGEST CHALLENGE?) The environment. We are sharing our resources in a very inequitable way. We have parts of the world that are very deprived and parts of the world that are very rich. And that is partly the reason why we have conflict.

You don't need a diploma to plant a tree.

Trees are living symbols of peace and hope. A tree has roots in the soil yet reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspire we need to be grounded...

nobody knows the solution to every problem; rather than blindly following the prescriptions of others, Africans need to think and act for themselves, and learn from their mistakes.

You would see me there now, cultivating the earth and carrying firewood on my back up the hills to my home, where I would light a fire and cook the evening meal. I would not tell stories, because they have been replaced by books, the radio, and television

Gli alberi sono stati una parte essenziale della mia vita e mi hanno insegnato tantissime cose. Sono simboli viventi di pace e speranza. Un albero spinge le radici nel profondo del terreno e tuttavia svetta alto nel cielo. Ci dice che per poter ambire a qualcosa dobbiamo essere ben piantati per terra e che, indipendentemente da quanto in alto arriviviamo, è sempre dalle radici che attingiamo il nostro
sostentamento. Serve e ricordare a tutti noi che abbiamo avuto successo nella vita che non possiamo dimenticare da dove siamo venuti. Significa che non importa quanto diventiamo potenti o quanti
premi riceviamo: la possibilità, la forza e la capacità di raggiungere i nostri obiettivi dipendono esclusivamente dalle persone, da tutti quelli che lavorano nell'ombra, che sono la terra su cui noi cresciamo, le spalle che ci sorreggono.

I’m very conscious of the fact that you can’t do it alone. It’s teamwork. When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it.