"Eventually I decided to give my thoughts a form, to put them into practice, and so to determine whether my understanding was right or wrong."

Masanobu Fukuoka Philosophy See all quotes by Masanobu Fukuoka →

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“My ultimate dream is to sow seeds in the desert. To revegetate the deserts is to sow seed in people's hearts.”

“If 22 bushels of rice and 22 bushels of winter grain are harvested from a quarter acre field such as one of these, then the field will support five to ten people each investing an average of less than one hour of labor per day. But if the field were turned over to pasturage, or if the grain were fed to cattle, only one person could be supported per quarter acre. Meat becomes a luxury food when its production requires land which could provide food directly for human consumption. This has been shown clearly and definitely. Each person should ponder seriously how much hardship he is causing by indulging in food so expensively produced.”

“Speaking biologically, fruit in a slightly shriveled state is holding its respiration and energy consumption down to the lowest possible level. It is like a person in meditation: his metabolism, respiration, and calorie consumption reach an extremely low level. Even if he fasts, the energy within the body will be conserved. In the same way, when mandarin oranges grow wrinkled, when fruit shrivels, when vegetables wilt, they are in the state that will preserve their food value for the longest possible time.”

“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”

Resonant Thoughts

"He advises us to examine well all the impressions on our minds and to form a right judgment of them, to make just conclusions, and to inquire into the meanings of words, and so far to apply Dialectic,…"

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Literature1800–1879

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"The right of no nation depends upon the date of its birth or the size of its power. As there can be no second class citizens before the law of America, so—we believe—there can be no second-class natio…"

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

Military1890–1969

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— Philip Melanchthon

Religion1497–1560

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"We believe that, in order to understand contemporary economic decision making, we need to supplement the study of market factors with an examination of the internal operation of the firm – to study th…"

— Richard Cyert

Politics1921–1998

#knowledge