We are overlooking soil as the foundation of all life on earth

by Andres Arnalds, Asst. Director, Icelandic Soil Conservation Service

While the farmer holds the title to the land, actually, it belongs to all the people because civilization itself rests upon the soil.

by Thomas Jefferson

A cloak of loose, soft material, held to the Earth’s hard surface by gravity, is all that lies between life and lifelessness.

by Soils of the Desert Southwest, 1975 by Wallace H. Fuller

… the soil of any one place makes its own peculiar and inevitable sense. It is impossible to contemplate the life of the soil for very long without seeing it as analogous to the life of the spirit.

by Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, 1977

Soils are developed; they are not merely an accumulation of debris resulting from decay of rock and organic materials … In other words, a soil is an entity – an object in nature which has characteristics that distinguish it from all other objects in nature.

by C.E. Millar & L.M. Turk 1943

If the soil is destroyed, then our liberty of action and choice are gone …

by W.C. Lowdermilk, 1953

Man and man’s earth are unexhausted and undiscovered. Wake and listen! Verily, the earth shall yet be a source of recovery. Remain faithful to the earth, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth.

by Friedrich Nietzche

I saw all the people hustling early in the morning to go into the factories and the stores and the office buildings, to do their job, to get their check. But ultimately it’s not office buildings or jobs that give us our checks. It’s the soil. The soil is what gives us the real income that supports us all.

by Ed Begley, Jr

To be a successful farmer one must first know the nature of the soil.

by Oeconomicus (400 B.C.) by Xenophon

For all things come from earth, and all things end by becoming earth.

by Xenophanes, (580 B.C.)

We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable supplies of air and soil; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and I will say, the love we give our fragile craft.

by Adlai Stevenson (1965)

A soil is not a pile of dirt. It is a transformer, a body that organizes raw materials into tissue. These are the tissues that become the mother to all organic life.

by Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Bryant Logan

Where the bottom layer of the sky rubs up against the top horizon of the soil, all terrestrial life is found.

by Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Bryant Logan

Civilization has its roots in the soil.

by Charles E. Kellogg

Soil is the last necessary thing. With air and water, a person can live 30 days; add but a comely pile of dirt and life expectancy expands a thousand times.

by Justin Isherwood

I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.

by George Washington

Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.

by Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington (1787)

The land belongs to the future.

by Willa Cather

Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plans, and animals.

by Aldo Leopold

The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.

by Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for it’s the only thing in this world that lasts. It’s the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for…

by Margaret Mitchell, Author, Gone With the Wind

…only rarely have we stood back and celebrated our soils as something beautiful and perhaps even mysterious. For what other natural body, worldwide in its distribution, has so many interesting secrets to reveal to the patient observer.

by Les Molloy

We might say that the earth has the spirit of growth; that its flesh is the soil.

by Leonardo da Vinci

There is no such thing as a residual soil.

by Roger Parsons, 1981

Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.

by Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Jay (Aug. 23, 1785)

How can I stand on the ground every day and not feel its power? How can I live my life stepping on this stuff and not wonder at it?

by William Bryant Logan, Dirt-The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth

The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all.

by Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, 1977

Nature has endowed the earth with glorious wonders and vast resources that man may use for his own ends. Regardless of our tastes or our way of living, there are none that present more variations to tax our imagination than the soil, and certainly none so important to our ancestors, to ourselves, and to our children.

by Charles Kellogg, The Soils That Support Us, 1956

Nature has endowed the earth with glorious wonders and vast resources that man may use for his own ends. Regardless of our tastes or our way of living, there are none that present more variations to tax our imagination than the soil, and certainly none so important to our ancestors, to ourselves, and to our children.

by Charles Kellogg, The Soils That Support Us, 1956

Be it deep or shallow, red or black, sand or clay, the soil is the link between the rock core of the earth and the living things on its surface. It is the foothold for the plants we grow. Therein lies the main reason for our interest in soils.

by Roy W. Simonson, USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, 1957

Essentially, all life depends upon the soil … There can be no life without soil and no soil without life; they have evolved together.

by Charles E. Kellogg, USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, 1938

Be it deep or shallow, red or black, sand or clay, the soil is the link between the rock core of the earth and the living things on its surface. It is the foothold for the plants we grow. Therein lies the main reason for our interest in soils.

by Roy W. Simonson, USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, 1957

Nature has endowed the earth with glorious wonders and vast resources that man may use for his own ends. Regardless of our tastes or our way of living, there are none that present more variations to tax our imagination than the soil, and certainly none so important to our ancestors, to ourselves, and to our children.

by Charles Kellogg, The Soils That Support Us, 1956

Nature has endowed the earth with glorious wonders and vast resources that man may use for his own ends. Regardless of our tastes or our way of living, there are none that present more variations to tax our imagination than the soil, and certainly none so important to our ancestors, to ourselves, and to our children.

by Charles Kellogg, The Soils That Support Us, 1956

The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all.

by Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, 1977

How can I stand on the ground every day and not feel its power? How can I live my life stepping on this stuff and not wonder at it?

by William Bryant Logan, Dirt-The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth

Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.

by Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Jay (Aug. 23, 1785)

There is no such thing as a residual soil.

by Roger Parsons, 1981

We might say that the earth has the spirit of growth; that its flesh is the soil.

by Leonardo da Vinci

…only rarely have we stood back and celebrated our soils as something beautiful and perhaps even mysterious. For what other natural body, worldwide in its distribution, has so many interesting secrets to reveal to the patient observer.

by Les Molloy

Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for it’s the only thing in this world that lasts. It’s the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for…

by Margaret Mitchell, Author, Gone With the Wind

The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.

by Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plans, and animals.

by Aldo Leopold

The land belongs to the future.

by Willa Cather

Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.

by Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington (1787)

I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.

by George Washington

Soil is the last necessary thing. With air and water, a person can live 30 days; add but a comely pile of dirt and life expectancy expands a thousand times.

by Justin Isherwood

Civilization has its roots in the soil.

by Charles E. Kellogg

Where the bottom layer of the sky rubs up against the top horizon of the soil, all terrestrial life is found.

by Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Bryant Logan

A soil is not a pile of dirt. It is a transformer, a body that organizes raw materials into tissue. These are the tissues that become the mother to all organic life.

by Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Bryant Logan

We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable supplies of air and soil; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and I will say, the love we give our fragile craft.

by Adlai Stevenson (1965)

For all things come from earth, and all things end by becoming earth.

by Xenophanes, (580 B.C.)

To be a successful farmer one must first know the nature of the soil.

by Oeconomicus (400 B.C.) by Xenophon

I saw all the people hustling early in the morning to go into the factories and the stores and the office buildings, to do their job, to get their check. But ultimately it’s not office buildings or jobs that give us our checks. It’s the soil. The soil is what gives us the real income that supports us all.

by Ed Begley, Jr

Man and man’s earth are unexhausted and undiscovered. Wake and listen! Verily, the earth shall yet be a source of recovery. Remain faithful to the earth, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth.

by Friedrich Nietzche

If the soil is destroyed, then our liberty of action and choice are gone …

by W.C. Lowdermilk, 1953

Soils are developed; they are not merely an accumulation of debris resulting from decay of rock and organic materials … In other words, a soil is an entity – an object in nature which has characteristics that distinguish it from all other objects in nature.

by C.E. Millar & L.M. Turk 1943

… the soil of any one place makes its own peculiar and inevitable sense. It is impossible to contemplate the life of the soil for very long without seeing it as analogous to the life of the spirit.

by Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, 1977

A cloak of loose, soft material, held to the Earth’s hard surface by gravity, is all that lies between life and lifelessness.

by Soils of the Desert Southwest, 1975 by Wallace H. Fuller

While the farmer holds the title to the land, actually, it belongs to all the people because civilization itself rests upon the soil.

by Thomas Jefferson