John Denver
(1943-1997)

American Singer-Songwriter, Environmentalist
1990 World Ecology Award

birthdate: December 31
birthplace:
Roswell, New Mexico

QUOTES

Peace is a conscious choice.

"I believe that we are here for each other, not against each other. Everything comes from an understanding that you are a gift in my life - whoever you are, whatever our differences."

"We must begin to make what I call "conscious choices," and to really recognize that we are the same. It's from that place in my heart that I write my songs."

"The life in the mountains is living in danger, with too many people, too many machines."

"Love the earth as you would love yourself."

"For the children and the flowers are my sisters and my brothers, come and stand beside me, we can find a better way."

"I would so much like young people to have a sense of the gift that they are. Not many of them feel like that."

"I think the biggest problem in the world is that we have a generation of young people, and maybe two, who don't think it's going to get any better."

"There's an aspect of human nature in which we want to think we're better than somebody else. They're a different color. They speak a different language. They have a different name for the Creator. Whatever it is, that makes it okay for me to hate them, to try to get some of their land or some of their resources."

"No one person has to do it all but if each one of us follow our heart and our own inclinations we will find the small things that we can do to create a sustainable future and a healthy environment."

The nuclear arms race is like two people sitting in a pool of gasoline spending all their time making matches.

I'm a global citizen. I've created that for myself and I don't want to step away from it. I want to work in whatever I do — my music, my writing, my performing, my commitments, my home and personal life — in a way that is directed towards a world in balance, a world that creates a better quality of life for all people.

For all its history, humanity has lived in the world as if the survival of each of us depended on our getting what we needed and keeping others from having it. It is clear now that the survival of each of us as individuals depends on our sharing with each other. If resources are limited, my survival is assured only to the degree that I provide for you and me, not to the extent that I take for me and mine and deprive you. This, too, we have in fact always known.

There is a man who is my brother; I just don’t know his name, But I know his home and his family Because I know we feel the same, And it hurts me when he’s hungry And when his children cry. I too am a father And that little one is mine.

Imagine what it might do to the human spirit to know that we have conquered hunger as a world wide societal issue? What an incredible thing. And I believe it came out of some people who made a commitment that we will make the end of hunger an idea whose time has come and we will commit ourselves to that endeavor.

 

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