“The soil under the grass is dreaming of a young forest, and under the pavement the soil is dreaming of grass.”
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Wendell Berry 189
author 1934Related quotes

“The summer grasses—
For many brave warriors
The aftermath of dreams.”
夏草や
兵どもが
夢の跡
natsukusa ya
tsuwamonodomo ga
yume no ato
Donald Keene, Travelers of a Hundred Ages, New York, 1999, p. 316 (Translation: Donald Keene)
The summer grasses—
Of brave soldiers' dreams
The aftermath.
Matsuo Bashō, The Narrow Road to Oku, Tokyo, 1996, p. 87 (Translation: Donald Keene)
Also: Classical Japanese Database, Translation #222 http://carlsensei.com/classical/index.php/translation/view/222
Oku no Hosomichi

How Plants are Trained to Work for Man (1921) Vol. 5 Gardening

"Intimations" (December 1941)
One Man's Meat (1942)
Context: Before you can be an internationalist you have first to be a naturalist and feel the ground under you making a whole circle. It is easier for a man to be loyal to his club than to his planet; the bylaws are shorter, and he is personally acquainted with the other members. A club, moreover, or a nation, has a most attractive offer to make: it offers the right to be exclusive. There are not many of us who are physically constituted to resist this strange delight, this nourishing privilege. It is at the bottom of all fraternities, societies, orders. It is at the bottom of most trouble. The planet holds out no such inducement. The planet is everybody's. All it offers is the grass, the sky, the water, the ineluctable dream of peace and fruition.

"Let's Go to the Olympics!" (18 May 2004) http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=thompson/040518
2000s
Context: These horrifying digital snapshots of the American dream in action on foreign soil are worse than anything even I could have expected. I have been in this business a long time and I have seen many staggering things, but this one is over the line. Now I am really ashamed to carry an American passport.

The Heaven of Animals (l. 1–6).
The Whole Motion; Collected Poems, 1945-1992 (1992)

Letter to the editor, Washington Post (1953); quoted in Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson (1999) edited by Linda Lear, p. 99
Context: The real wealth of the Nation lies in the resources of the earth — soil, water, forests, minerals, and wildlife. To utilize them for present needs while insuring their preservation for future generations requires a delicately balanced and continuing program, based on the most extensive research. Their administration is not properly, and cannot be, a matter of politics.