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"The Cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind." – Thomas Paine, Common Sense "Tyranny is so generally established in the rest of the world that the prospect of an asylum in America for those who love liberty gives general joy, and our cause is esteemed the cause of all mankind... "We are fighting for the dignity and happiness of human nature. Glorious it is for the Americans to be called by Providence to this post of honour. Cursed and detested will everyone be that deserts or betrays it." – Benjamin Franklin "Our Revolution is an important event for the advantage of mankind in general." – Benjamin Franklin "I sincerely pray that all the members of the human family may, in the time prescribed by the Father of us all, find themselves securely established in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and happiness." – Thomas Jefferson "The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom... 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now." – Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776) " To see it in our power to make a world happy, to teach mankind the art of being so, to exhibit on the theater of the universe a character hitherto unknown, and to have, as it were, a new creation entrusted to our hands are honors that command reflection and can neither be too highly estimated nor too gratefully received." – Thomas Paine, The American Crisis: XIII (1783) "Somewhere along the way we lost the experience of unity. We live our lives propping up the pathetic lie that we are different from everything else. This is a lie because the same awareness shines in the heart of all things. The lie is pathetic because it dooms us to a dry life of alienation. "Difference breeds indifference. If you think the forest is not you, you are more willing to exploit it or let others exploit it for you. We are devastating forests and the foundations of vegetable life: soil, air, water and solar radiation. This is not only murderous, but also suicidal." "The connection with nature is exhilarating and beautiful, but it is not a luxury. Connection with nature is health; health is life. Without it we shrivel and die... With it we prosper. This is so because we are nature; we are made of dirt, rain, sunshine, minerals and gases. ow we relate to the landscape within is how we relate to the landscape without. Eating-disorders and erosion of the topsoil are part of the same problem. Ecological crisis is a medical syndrome writ large." – Eliot Cowan, Plant Spirit Medicine The physical reality of America is her natural environment, the land of our fathers. The word patriot derives from pater, Greek for "father."

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