WWNorton

“We’ve learned a little about a few of them, in isolation. But nothing is less isolated or more social than a tree.”
― Richard Powers, The Overstory

“The great triumph (or horrible tragedy, depending on how you look at it) of being human is that our brains have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to understand our mortality. We are, sadly, self-aware creatures. Even if we move through the day finding creative ways to deny our mortality, no matter how powerful, loved, or special we may feel, we know we are ultimately doomed to death and decay. This is a mental burden shared by precious few other species on Earth.”
― Caitlin Doughty

“On the farm, this is failure's best hiding place—smack in the middle of runaway success.”
― Ted Genoways, This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm

“The earth is expertly designed to take back what it has created. Bodies left for carrion in enclosed, regulated spaces could be the answer to the environmental problems of burial and cremation. There is no limit to where our engagement with death can take us.”
― Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory