Gregor Smith

“The new political integration might well have doomed Scotland to the status of an English economic satellite: a supplier of foods, raw materials and cheap labour for the more sophisticated southern economy but with little possibility of achieving manufacturing growth and diversification in her own right...Union could well have been the political prelude to 'the development of underdevelopment' rather than the catalyst for a new age or progress and prosperity.”
― T.M. Devine, The Scottish Nation: A History, 1700 - 2000

“One thing is certain, we all translate our own ideas of happiness into form. It happens when you buy a car. It happens when a CEO contemplates the form of a new skyscraper headquarters, or when a master architect lays out a grand scheme for social housing. It happens when planners, politicians and community boards wrestle over roads, planning regulations and monuments. It is impossible to seperate the life and design of a city from the attempt to understand happiness, to experience it, and to build it for society. The search shapes cities, and cities shape the search in return.”
― Charles Montgomery, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

“We dont even know their names anymore. The average person knows the name of less than a dozen plants, and this includes such categories as 'Christmas Tree'. Losing their names is a step in losing respect.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

“What do the Soviet pilots think as they press the fire control button? is there the same absense of emotion which I seek as i press the button of my camera? Do we both, for an instant, lose our humanity in machines?”
― Peregrine Hodson, Under a Sickle Moon: A Journey Through Afghanistan