Top 80 Wangari Maathai Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope.”

— Wangari Maathai

2. “You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself. That values itself. That understands itself.”

— Wangari Maathai

3. “Culture is coded wisdom.”

— Wangari Maathai

4. “Those of us who have been privileged to receive education, skills, and experiences and even power must be role models for the next generation of leadership.”

— Wangari Maathai

5. “Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. You are just talking.”

— Wangari Maathai

6. “We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment.”

— Wangari Maathai

7. “You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.”

— Wangari Maathai

8. “We all share one planet and are one hummanity, there is no escaping this reality.”

— Wangari Maathai

9. “No matter who or where we are, or what our capabilities, we are called to do the best we can.”

— Wangari Maathai

10. “There are opportunities even in the most difficult moments.”

— Wangari Maathai

11. “We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!”

— Wangari Maathai

12. “It’s the little things citizens do. That’s what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.”

— Wangari Maathai

13. “In Kenya women are the first victims of environmental degradation, because they are the ones who walk for hours looking for water, who fetch firewood, who provide food for their families.”

— Wangari Maathai

14. “In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.”

— Wangari Maathai

15. “The little grassroots people can change this world.”

— Wangari Maathai

16. “I don’t really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me.”

— Wangari Maathai

17. “I’m very conscious of the fact that you can’t do it alone. It’s teamwork. When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it.”

— Wangari Maathai

18. “In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.”

— Wangari Maathai

19. “The women of the Green Belt Movement have learned about the causes and the symptoms of environmental degradation. They have begun to appreciate that they, rather than their government, ought to be the custodians of the environment.”

— Wangari Maathai

20. “You can make a lot of speeches, but the real thing is when you dig a hole, plant a tree, give it water, and make it survive. That’s what makes the difference.”

— Wangari Maathai

21. “We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind.”

— Wangari Maathai

22. “The planet needs trees. If there is indeed that carbon dioxide out there in the atmosphere, the only species on the planet that can actually trap it for us in a natural process of photosynthesis are the trees.”

— Wangari Maathai

23. “The generation that destroys the environment is not the generation that pays the price. That is the problem.”

— Wangari Maathai

24. “Culture defines who we are and how we see ourselves. A new attitude toward nature provides space for a new attitude toward culture and the role it plays in sustainable development.”

— Wangari Maathai

25. “What a friend we have in a tree, the tree is the symbol of hope, self improvement and what people can do for themselves.”

— Wangari Maathai

26. “We can love ourselves by loving the earth.”

— Wangari Maathai

27. “For me, one of the major reasons to move beyond just the planting of trees was that I have tendency to look at the causes of a problem. We often preoccupy ourselves with the symptoms, whereas if we went to the root cause of the problems, we would be able to overcome the problems once and for all.”

— Wangari Maathai

28. “Every person who has ever achieved anything has been knocked down many times. But all of them picked themselves up and kept going, and that is what I have always tried to do.”

— Wangari Maathai

29. “Human rights are not things that are put on the table for people to enjoy. These are things you fight for and then you protect.”

— Wangari Maathai

30. “All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet.”

— Wangari Maathai

31. “If you make mistakes that is alright because we all make mistakes and we learn from those mistakes. You gain confidence from learning, failing and rising again.”

— Wangari Maathai

32. “The people are learning that you cannot leave decisions only to leaders. Local groups have to create the political will for change, rather than waiting for others to do things for them. That is where positive, and sustainable, change begins.”

— Wangari Maathai

33. “That’s the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree.”

— Wangari Maathai

34. “Anybody can dig a hole and plant a tree. But make sure it survives. You have to nurture it, you have to water it, you have to keep at it until it becomes rooted so it can take care or itself. There are so many enemies of trees.”

— Wangari Maathai

35. “We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all.”

— Wangari Maathai

36. “We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible.”

— Wangari Maathai

37. “We think that diamonds are very important, gold is very important, all these minerals are very important. We call them precious minerals, but they are all forms of the soil. But that part of this mineral that is on top, like it is the skin of the earth, that is the most precious of the commons.”

— Wangari Maathai

38. “Women are responsible for their children, they cannot sit back, waste time and see them starve.”

— Wangari Maathai

39. “We do the right thing not to please people but because it’s the only logically reasonable thing to do, as long as we are being honest with ourselves – even if we are the only ones.”

— Wangari Maathai

40. “It is important to nurture any new ideas and initiatives which can make a difference for Africa.”

— Wangari Maathai

41. “The living conditions of the poor must be improved if we really want to save our environment.”

— Wangari Maathai

42. “We have a responsibility to protect the rights of generations, of all species, that cannot speak for themselves today. The global challenge of climate change requires that we ask no less of our leaders, or ourselves.”

— Wangari Maathai

43. “Disempowerment – whether defined in terms of a lack of self-confidence, apathy, fear, or an inability to take charge of one’s own life – is perhaps the most unrecognised problem in Africa today.”

— Wangari Maathai

44. “That’s the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree. And so I got an indigenous tree, called Nandi flame, it has this beautiful red flowers. When it is in flower it is like it is in flame.”

— Wangari Maathai

45. “There’s a general culture in this country to cut all the trees. It makes me so angry because everyone is cutting and no one is planting.”

— Wangari Maathai

46. “It’s a matter of life and death for this country. The Kenyan forests are facing extinction and it is a man-made problem.”

— Wangari Maathai

47. “As long as there is no trust and confidence that there will be justice and fairness in resource distribution, political positioning will remain more important than service.”

— Wangari Maathai

48. “What people see as fearlessness is really persistence. Because I am focused on the solution, I don’t see the danger.”

— Wangari Maathai

49. “You cannot blame the mismanagement of the economy or the fact that we have not invested adequately in education in order to give our people the knowledge, the skills and the technology that they need in order to be able to use the resources that Africa has to gain wealth.”

— Wangari Maathai

50. “We tend to put the environment last because we think the first thing we have to do is eliminate poverty. But you can’t reduce poverty in a vacuum. You are doing it in an environment.”

— Wangari Maathai