"The most important environmental issue is one that is rarely mentioned, and that is the lack of a conservation ethic in our culture."

Character

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Character as articulated by Gaylord Nelson. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Character provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About Gaylord Nelson

Gaylord Anton Nelson was an American lawyer, Democratic politician, and environmentalist from Wisconsin. He served three terms as a United States senator from Wisconsin, from 1963 to 1981, and was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Small Business for the last six years of his tenure. During his time in the U.S. Senate, he was the creator of Earth Day, which launched a new wave of environmental activism. After losing his bid for re-election in 1980, he continued his environmental activism as counselor for The Wilderness Society, and was honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his environmental efforts by President Bill Clinton.

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More by Gaylord Nelson

"Franklin Roosevelt was very concerned about environmental issues."

— Gaylord Nelson
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"In the state of Wisconsin it's mandated that teachers in the social sciences and hard sciences have to start giving environmental education by the first grade, through high school."

— Gaylord Nelson
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"Loads of chemicals and hazardous wastes have been introduced into the atmosphere that didn't even exist in 1948. The environmental condition of the planet is far worse than it was 42 years ago."

— Gaylord Nelson
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More about Character

"Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time."

— George W. Bush
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"There is no influence like the influence of habit."

— Gilbert Parker
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"There are Michael Scott moments, which are character choices, but there are also Steve's reads. Usually the things that I'm the biggest fan of are these weird reads that he does - just the way he's interacting with other people."

— Greg Daniels
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"The law of humanity ought to be composed of the past, the present, and the future, that we bear within us whoever possesses but one of these terms, has but a fragment of the law of the moral world."

— Edgar Quinet
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