“At issue is not whether the global economy will pass away. It is passing away. Rising populations and debt combined with depletion of freshwater sources and fossil fuel make the status quo untenable. The only question is whether civil society will survive the transition.”

“New breakthrough technologies can make it easier, but we've already got, right now, everything we need to accomplish the task of transforming our energy economy away from fossil fuels. Except the willingness.”

“The so-called global economy was not a permanent institution, […] but a set of transient circumstances peculiar to a certain time: the Indian summer of the fossil fuel era.”

“Whenever you write on a subject that questions the status quo, there are bound to be many who wrestle with the issues”

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

“It passes, but it does not pass away.”

“This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die.”

“As Rome passed away, so, the West is passing away, from the same causes and in much the same way. What the Danube and Rhine were to Rome, the Rio Grande and Mediterranean are to America and Europe, the frontiers of a civilization no longer defended.”

“The old condition is passing away. The new dawn of another civilized nation is breaking into the lives of the human race.”

“The management question, therefore, is not whether to build a pilot system and throw it away. You will do that. [… ] Hence plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.”