Jensen Quotes & Sayings

There are a hundred or perhaps a thousand other emotions, or gradations, created by the mixing, blending, and overlapping of the basic ones. — Anabel Jensen

Once you break your identification with the system, with the authoritarian technics that are driving planetary murder, your language and your actions become very different. Once you identify with the real, living planet, everything changes. — Derrick Jensen

Question four: What book would you give to every child?
Answer: I wouldn't give them a book. Books are part of the problem: this strange belief that a tree has nothing to say until it is murdered, its flesh pulped, and then (human) people stain this flesh with words. I would take children outside and put them face to face with chipmunks, dragonflies, tadpoles, hummingbirds, stones, rivers, trees, crawdads.
That said, if you're going to force me to give them a book, it would be The Wind In The Willows, which I hope would remind them to go outside. — Derrick Jensen

Our facility is state of the art. There are half a dozen big cozy offices that Chad Jensen could've parked his ass in, but for some reason he chose this modest office tucked away near the laundry room.

I knock on the door, only opening it when I hear Coach's gruff, "Get in here." The last player who waltzed in without knocking got a tongue-lashing that the rest of us could hear all the way from the showers. I like to think Coach uses the office to jack off and that's why he insists on privacy. Logan hypothesizes that he has a secret office family that's only allowed to venture out in the wee hours of the night.

Logan is an idiot. — Elle Kennedy

Learning has to come from doing, not intellectualizing. — Derrick Jensen

When we realize the degree of agency we actually do have, we no longer have to "hope" at all. We simply do the work. — Derrick Jensen

Future strong builds actions upon reflection,
questions, curiosity, seeking to understand root causes and systemic connections. — Bill Jensen

How do you explain to a nonreader that books aren't just things but treasured friends? Companions? — Laura Jensen Walker

Does anyone really believe that a pattern of exploitation old as our civilization can be halted legislatively, judicially, or through any means other than an absolute rejection of the mindset that engineers the exploitation in the first place, followed by actions based on that rejection? This means if we want to stop the destruction, we have to root out the mindset. — Derrick Jensen

You wanna know something," was Dad's refrain while we were growing up, "get a book." Of course,he predates Google, but it stuck with me. — Melissa Jensen

I'm just a regular boy who goofs around, pulls pranks, and makes jokes. I'm not Mr. Debonair Suave. I'm just a regular boy who goofs around, pulls pranks, and makes jokes. That doesn't sound very hot to me. — Jensen Ackles

It's okay to be happy, it's okay to live your life exactly the way you want it ... It's okay to find what makes you happy and then to fight for it. To dedicate your life to discovering who you are. — Derrick Jensen

I've thought a lot about hope and come to the conclusion that either it's there or it isn't. No in between. You — Liz Jensen

Future strong is relationship-driven and joyful.
Its best bet is on people. Its outcomes create joy
for others and ourselves. — Bill Jensen

Nobody is more individual than you, so be confident with who you are and what you have to offer because everybody has got things to offer. — Ashley Jensen

Now that your speech impediment has been rectified, perhaps you might say something. It would be best if it were humorous. I enjoy a good jest.'

'You are dreadfully rude,' I said to him.

He sighed. 'That wasn't the slightest bit funny. — Danielle L. Jensen

Everyone in our town has a story
but it's not the one he tells himself. Its author has a thousand eyes, a thousand ears, and five hundred pens that never stop scribbling. — Carsten Jensen

It was almost like being a child again because you felt like you were in your bedroom and it almost felt like no one was really watching you. So, you were just kind of having a bit of fun on your own doing silly voices in the bedroom. — Ashley Jensen

If we wish to stop the atrocities, we need merely to step away from the isolation. There is a whole world waiting for us, ready to welcome us home. — Derrick Jensen

What will you do today so tomorrow becomes the legacy you wanted to leave? — Bill Jensen

A sensible way to begin a discussion of that greater good is to focus on the current conditions within the human family and on the state of the larger living world. — Robert Jensen

Is love meant to make us feel like fools? — Melissa Jensen

I think we should be proud of the fact that our face has got lines, because at least that means we have lived. — Ashley Jensen

If your homeland were invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air and contaminated the food supply, would you resist? — Derrick Jensen

But that's how it is on a sailing ship, and in this respect its journey parallels that of life: simply knowing where you want to go isn't enough, because life is a windblown voyage, consisting mainly of the detours imposed by alternating calm and storm. — Carsten Jensen

I'm thinking of Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music ... there are too many to name really. And all the old classic ones like Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. That's brutal! — Ashley Jensen

In order to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other, and especially to ourselves. — Derrick Jensen

I see all the red carpet paparazzi stuff and I'm like, 'Really? Do I have to?!' I like to work and I know that's part of the job. But you kind of take it in stride. — Jensen Ackles

No matter what we call it, poison is still poison, death is still death, and industrial civilization is still causing the greatest mass extinction in the history of the planet. — Derrick Jensen

What was he thinking about? He was old, but he hasn't found peace.

Had he realized that a long life didn't automatically bestow wisdom? — Carsten Jensen

Nowadays, it's good to eat the booty like groceries, but back then, going down on a woman was sort of "Ew." — Jensen Karp

What are you doing, Jensen," I whispered.
"What do you want me to do, Mia?" he whispered back.
"I don't want you to do anything."
"Then I'm not doing anything," he said just as low. — Claire Contreras

For many years I was engaged in journalism, writing articles and chronicles for the daily press without ever joining the staff of any newspaper. — Johannes Vilhelm Jensen

One of Cranmer's goals in writing and revising the Book of Common Prayer was to get Scripture into the ears of the people so that their hearts might be turned to God and their lives transformed by his love. Cranmer — Michael Jensen

I've always been interested in the paranormal, but 'Gray Matter' is a more subtle, mature expression of that - looking at the powers of the brain and more delicate evidence of the extraordinary. — Jane Jensen

All our failures makes us change our lives, but our changes will always be in our memories. — Jim Jensen

People routinely assume that pornography is such a difficult and divisive issue because it's about sex. In fact, this culture struggles unsuccessfully with pornography because it is about men's cruelty to women, and the pleasure men sometimes take in that cruelty. And that is much more difficult for people
men and women
to face. — Robert Jensen

Fall into the cavern of my mind, and together there, we will dine. — Brad Jensen

What the hell is going on in here?"

Hannah jumps in surprise when Coach Jensen appears in the shower area.

Oh, hey, Coach," I call out. "Not what it looks like."

His dark brows knit in a displeased frown. "It looks like you're taking a shower in front of your girlfriend. In my locker room."

"Okay, then yeah, it's what it looks like. But I promise, it's all very PG. Well, except for the fact that I'm naked. But don't worry, no kinky shit is going to happen." I grin at him. "I'm trying to win her back."

Coach's mouth opens, then closes, then opens again. I can't tell if he's amused or pissed or ready to wash his hands of this whole thing. Finally, he nods and opts for option number three. "Carry on. — Elle Kennedy

Guys generally need us to come with subtitles, cue cards, and liability waivers. — Melissa Jensen

Even terror needs a yardstick, and surely the yardstick for the unknown is the known? — Carsten Jensen

I take it that's where you met Todd.'
'Yep. Almost five years ago. Can you believe it?'
'Five years! You and Todd should be the poster couple for the 'Love Waits' campaign.'
Christy laughed. 'It didn't seem that long. A lot has happened during those five years. But I do agree that true love is worth the wait. I'd wait another five years for Todd if I had to. He's the only man for me. Ever. — Robin Jones Gunn

All our moments are last moments. We abide in the forever leaving of our own coming? We can put our hands together, palm to palm, settling here on the last leaf of our brief flight, and bow to the wonder of it. — Jens Jensen

Here lay the gateway between worlds, the divide between reality and fantasy. A dream or, depending on who waited, a nightmare. — Danielle L. Jensen

Make no mistake, our economic system can do no other than destroy everything it encounters. That's what happens when you convert living beings to cash. That conversion, from living trees to lumber, schools of cod to fish sticks, and onward to numbers on a ledger, is the central process of our economic system. Psychologically, it is the central process of our enculturation; we are most handsomely rewarded in direct relation to the manner in which we can help increase the Gross National Product. — Derrick Jensen

We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls. — Derrick Jensen

So while this is a book about fighting back, in the end this is a book about love. The songbirds and the salmon need your heart, no matter how weary, because even a broken heart is still made of love. They need your heart because they are disappearing, slipping into that longest night of extinction, and the resistance is nowhere in sight. We will have to build that resistance from whatever comes to hand: whispers and prayers, history and dreams, from our bravest words and braver actions. It will be hard, there will be a cost, and in too many implacable dawns it will seem impossible. But we will have to do it anyway. So gather your heart and join with every living being. With love as our First Cause, how can we fail? — Derrick Jensen

To be future strong, you will face difficult hardships. Usually, there is no absolutely right or absolutely wrong choice. The key is to be intentional: Choosing the best hardships for your best future. — Bill Jensen

I think because I did become a well-known face in my thirties and not in my twenties, I was pretty settled in my boots and I knew who I was. And I think there's a sort of Scottish thing, too, where you don't take yourself too seriously, and you don't get carried away with your own sense of self-importance. — Ashley Jensen

Actions speak louder than words — Danielle L. Jensen

Americans are so direct. They'd ask me, 'What's your five-year plan? Do you have a five-year plan?' I don't know what I'm having for my tea tonight let alone a five-year plan. — Ashley Jensen

All night, snow.
Open the window,
stretch my arms out.
Keep my eyes open
in the white, whipping wind.
There are few cars on the highway.
The river's frozen in places.
In a city that never stops,
I can hardly hear anything.



For tonight, the city gives me
what I need. — Cordelia Jensen

No, he hadn't known anything about children, but now he'd learned something: a child's mind is open to everything. — Carsten Jensen

Christy said. "It's just weird, your seeing him like that. What are you going to do?"
"Nothing. What can I do?"
"Maybe he'll call you to see if you're okay," Katie said.
"No," Christy said, "in the movies he would have told his friend to stop the car, and he would have run back to you with an umbrella and walked you the rest of the way hoe, and you would have made him a pot of tea."
Sierra laughed. "I am drinking tea right now," she said. "Maybe my life is a low budget 'B' movie, and all I get is the tea. No hero. No umbrella."
"Yeah, well then my life is a class 'Z' movie," Katie said. "No tea. No hero. No umbrella. No plot
"
"Yours is more of a mystery," Christy interrupted cheerfully. "The ending will surprise all of us. — Robin Jones Gunn

Many Indians have told me that the most basic difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that Westerners view the world as dead, and not as filled with speaking, thinking, feeling subjects as worthy and valuable as themselves. — Derrick Jensen

I don't have time to worry about the things that could happen. I am too busy thinking of all the happy things that have happened. — Luke Jensen

Those in power have made it so we have to pay simply to exist on the planet. We have to pay for a place to sleep, and we have to pay for food. If we don't, people with guns come and force us to pay. That's violent. — Derrick Jensen

I've since come to understand the reason school lasts thirteen years. It takes that long to sufficiently break a child's will. It is not easy to disconnect children's wills, to disconnect them from their own experiences of the world in preparation for the lives of painful employment they will have to endure. — Derrick Jensen

Most corporate infrastructures are massive time-wasters and demoralizing energy suckers. — Bill Jensen

I wove my way between the tables, pulling my hair forward over my shoulders as I went.Alex was still sitting when I reached him.
"Hey.This was on the floor in the upstairs hall ... "
I stood behind his chair. Completely frozen.
I might have stood there for a very long time if he hadn't pushed himself away from the table to get up. The chair thumped me in the stomach first, then in the knees.I think I made a noise. I dropped his book.
"Oh.Oh,crap.I'm really sorry!" Alex jerked the chair out of the way and bent down a little. He had to, to see my face. "You okay?"
I did manage to nod.
"Seriously.I must have really pounded you there.You sure you're all right?"
"Yes,fine," I whispered.
Across the table, Chase Vere laughed. "Dude, she was,like, standing right behind you. — Melissa Jensen

Before I lived in America, my husband and I did a Californian road trip. We took a month, starting off in L.A. I love the landscapes of California: one moment you're in the desert, the next you're up in the Napa Valley or by the water in Big Bear. — Ashley Jensen

The influenza epidemic eventually claimed more than six million lives, but in the United States, at least, it had run its course by late in the year. — Dean Jensen

The process of schooling does not give birth to human beings - as education should but never will so long as it springs from the collective consciousness of our culture - but instead it teaches us to value abstract rewards at the expense of our autonomy, curiosity, interior lives, and time. — Derrick Jensen

We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems. — Derrick Jensen

This is not exactly what I had in mind when I agreed to miss lunch," Alex said grumpily forty minutes later. He shifted uncomfortably and tried to see what I was doing.
I stared him back into submission. "Wait."
The art room is usually empty Thursday afternoons except for me. Ms. Evers leaves early to teach her UArts class and looks up.Of course, I am one of the few entrusted with the Secret Location of the Key.
A few feet away from where I sat perched on a stool,Alex was posed on the anchient chaise we use for figure drawing. It's a relic, probably from the Palladinetti years: chipped mahogany and dusty velvet, what little remaining stuffing pokes out from a century of holes. I was probably luxurious once. Now it's like sitting on a slightly smelly board. But I'd wanted to sketch Alex as I so often saw him, reclining with his head propped on one hand,listening or talking or coaxing me to put down the glass, already,Ella,and come here. — Melissa Jensen

A wonderful thing happens when you give up on hope, which is that you realize you never needed it in the first place. You realize that giving up on hope doesn't kill you, nor did it make you less effective. In fact it made you more effective, because you ceased relying on someone or something else to solve your problems - you ceased hoping your problems somehow get solved, through the magical assistance of God, the Great Mother, the Sierra Club, valiant tree-sitters, brave salmon, or even the Earth itself - and you just began doing what's necessary to solve your problems yourself. — Derrick Jensen

I was on my own, living in Los Angeles, and I didn't know my way around, so I thought I'd walk everywhere. Well, that certainly got me noticed. Any woman who walks any distance at all is automatically regarded as a hooker! — Ashley Jensen

You will experience 100 transformative moments every year. — Bill Jensen

All are failures makes us change our lives, but changes our will always be in our memories. — Jim Jensen

Corporations have more power than the government. — Adam Jensen

We thought we knew everything about him. But that's not how life is. When all's said and done, we can never truly know one another. — Carsten Jensen

Embracing personal vulnerability is required if you wish to work, play and succeed in the future. — Bill Jensen

Needless to say, Virgin Val Jensen is no longer a virgin. I made sure of that ... many, many times. — Kelly Oram

By deafening ourselves to the emotional consequences of violence we have become confused by its relationship to sex. We have come to believe that violence equals aggression, and we have come to base our model of sexuality on our model of violence ... converting an act of aggression into an act of consensual sexuality. — Derrick Jensen

I really just wanted to work on adventure games, so Pinkerton Road is our own little indie studio that's focused on that. — Jane Jensen

If you see yourself as entitled to a resource, and if you're not willing or incapable of seeing this other as a being with whom you can and should be in relation with, then you're going to take the resource. — Derrick Jensen

The big dividing line is not and has never been between those who advocate more or less militant forms of resistance, or between mainstream and grassroots activists. The dividing line is between those who do something and those who do nothing. — Derrick Jensen

Grief has pushed us apart like repelling magnets: no matter how hard we try to reach each other, there's a gulf between us that we just can't bridge. — Louise Jensen

Marie Caroline Jensen, will you marry me?" he asked suddenly, looking right into my eyes. I bit my lip, trying to decide how long to drag it out. Maybe a little longer ... he'd used the "b" word, I should probably make him suffer. I looked away, refusing to meet his eyes as he stopped laughing and grew still.
"Marie?" he asked, his voice suddenly strained. "Oh fuck, don't do this to me, please. I - "
"Yes," I said, catching his eye and smirking. "I'll marry your big, dumb ass but only because you said the magic word."
"Fuck? You're right, that is a magic word. Let's test it out. — Joanna Wylde

Faith is secured by adversity, but endangered by security. — Margaret Jensen

To be bound is a burden, but it is the actions we freely take that cause us the most pain. — Danielle L. Jensen

If we hope to stem the mass destruction that inevitably attends our economic system (and to alter the sense of entitlement - the sense of contempt, the hatred - on which it is based), fundamental historical, social, economic, and technological forces need to be pondered, understood, and redirected. Behavior won't change much without a fundamental change in consciousness. The question becomes: How do we change consciousness? — Derrick Jensen

Carpe Dium, I say. Seize the day. Grab it by the throat and rattle its bollocks — Liz Jensen

So often, environmentalists and others working to slow the destruction are capable of plainly describing the problems (Who wouldn't be? The problems are neither subtle nor cognitively challenging), yet when faced with the emotionally daunting task of fashioning a response to these clear and clearly insoluble problems, we generally suffer a failure of nerve and imagination. Gandhi wrote a letter to Hitler asking him to stop committing atrocities, and was mystified that it didn't work. I continue to write letters to the editor pointing out untruths, and continue to be surprised each time the newspaper publishes its next absurdity. At least I've stopped writing to politicians. — Derrick Jensen

The grounding in natural sciences which I obtained in the course of my medical studies, including preliminary examinations in botany, zoology, physics, and chemistry, was to become decisive in determining the trend of my literary work. — Johannes Vilhelm Jensen

The pretense that humans are superior to nonhumans is entirely unsupportable. I have seen no compelling evidence that humans are particularly more "intelligent" than any other creature. I have had long and fruitful relationshis with many nonhuman animals, both domesticated and wild, and have reveled in the bouquet of radically different intelligences - different forms, not different "quantities" that they have introduced to me, each in his or her own time, in his or her own way. — Derrick Jensen

We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist. Our assault on the natural world, on indigenous and other cultures, on women, on children, on all of us through the possibility of nuclear suicide and other means
all these are unprecedented in their magnitude and ferocity. — Derrick Jensen

We're clearly heading into a period of prolonged emergency, although the crisis will vary between chronic and acute over time. That increases the prospects for revolutionary - or rather, devolutionary - struggle, especially if radical organizations are able to anticipate and effectively seize opportunities offered by particular crises. It's unlikely that mass support will be rallied for anticivilizational causes in the foreseeable future, because most people are happy to get the material benefits of this culture and ignore the consequences. However, an increase in political discontent can be beneficial even if it doesn't create a majority. — Derrick Jensen

To be clear, civilization is not the same as society. Civilization is a specific, hierarchical organization based on 'power over.' Dismantling civilization, taking down that power structure, does not mean the end of all social order. It should ultimately mean more justice, more local control, more democracy, and more human rights, not less. — Derrick Jensen

Sometimes I feel foolish for hoping she's alive. But then I feel guilty--as if being 'realistic' is giving up.
Other times, I think the uncertainty is the worst part. Alive or dead, I just need to know...
Or maybe that's just a bullshit rationalization. Because I know the day you come here to tell me that she's dead will be the worst day of my life. — Jeff Jensen

Far too much horrific wast of human capacity is disguised as order, predictability, and minimizing uncertainty. — Bill Jensen

Hey, ass-hats!"

We bolt to our feet when Coach Jensen's commanding voice snaps toward the bleachers. Our fearless leader - the only Briar faculty member who can get away with calling students "ass-hats" - glares at us from the ice.

"Is there a reason your lazy asses are up in those seats when you should all be in the weight room?" he booms. "Quit stalking my practice!" Then he turns to scowl at the trio of freshmen who are snickering behind their gloves. "What're you ladies laughing at? Hustle!"

The players speed forward as if the ice behind them is cracking to pieces.

Up in the stands, the guys and I hustle just as fast. — Elle Kennedy

I would say I'm a storyteller first, but game making is very wrapped up in how I think of story. If I were to have a story idea, and I decided to write a novel with it instead, I'd have to very consciously de-couple it from gamedom - for example, deliberately add in things that could not be represented in a game scene. — Jane Jensen

Future strong cultures and relationships are built upon intense 'I have your back' bonds. — Bill Jensen

Perception is of course intimately tied to preconception. I have, as is true for each of us, a pair of cultural eyeglasses that will determine to greater or lesser degree what will be in focus, what will be a blur, what gives me a headache, and what I cannot see. I was raised a Christian - the mythology resides deep in my bones - and I know the story of Jesus nearly as well as I know my own. Until my late teens I couldn't see some of the darker acts perpetrated in the name of Christ. I still feel a twinge each time I say, "I am not a Christian," a slight apprehension that I may have gone too far. Sometimes I look up, a small part of my upbringing still telling me that my blasphemy will call forth a bolt of lightning from the sky. — Derrick Jensen

We understand each other, Jensen. Who else would ever understand us and love us as much as we do? — Maya Banks

Ivy held no claim over me," he said softly. "You, on the other hand, you claimed me from the moment I first saw you. — Megg Jensen

There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. — Arthur Jensen

They all lived so steeped in fear that the losses they had yet to suffer had already consumed them. — Carsten Jensen

Wake up and smell the burning rubber. — E.G. Jensen