Robert Redford
(1937-)

American Actor, Director, Environmentalist, Philanthropist

birthdate: August 18
birthplace:
Santa Monica, California

QUOTES

I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?

Once you hear the word censorship, you're taking away the people's right to reason and to think on their own. That's just the beginning of a long road that would put us in a place that I don't think anybody would want to be.

We’ve poisoned the air, the water, and the land. In our passion to control nature, things have gone out of control. Progress from now on has to mean something different. We’re running out of resources and we are running out of time.

If we want energy security, then we have to reduce our appetite for fossil fuels. There's no other way. Other issues may crowd the headlines, but this is our fundamental challenge. Big challenges require bold action and leadership. To get the United States off fossil fuels in this uneasy national climate of terrorism and conflict in the Persian Gulf, we must treat the issue with the urgence and persistance it deserves. The measure of our success will be the condition on which we leave the world for the next generation.

I came to a place where I realized what true value was. It wasn't money. Money is a means to achieving an end, but it's not the end.

We do not own this place, we are just passengers.

I can't think of anything outside of having the gift yourself and creating yourself. I can't think of the next better thing to do than being able to put it back. Creative expression, I think, is vital to the success of any society. ... A society without art will die."

As Aldous Huxley’s perceived vision of A Brave New World descends upon us with alarming speed, we might ask ourselves how to be with it. Do we accept the shift from human values to cosmetic and material ones without resistance? Or do we labor to maintain our human values by adjusting to these seemingly inevitable changes through creating new paradigms for sustainability? What new formulas await to preserve our environment, if not repair the damage already done? What solutions will save public education, now endangered in underprivileged areas by the greed and ignorant ambitions of faulty leadership – or support and sustain art as a vital part of any society or culture? When I look about and see what the information age has wrought, I see a culture rich in materials for pleasure and excess communication but poor in depth of feeling and imagination – dull and flat and rich. I vote for the fight. For if our humanity – our soul as a society – is overtaken by the materiel and cosmetic, there will be no hope of peace.

 

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