Dale Carnegie
American writer and lecturer (1888-1955)
Marjory Stoneman Douglaswas an American journalist, author, women’s suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, she became a freelance writer, producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines.
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About the Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglaswas an American journalist, author, women’s suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, she became a freelance writer, producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson’s influential book Silent Spring (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes.
As a young woman, Douglas was outspoken and politically conscious of the women’s suffrage and civil rights movements. She was called upon to take a central role in the protection of the Everglades when she was 79 years old. For the remaining 29 years of her life she was “a relentless reporter and fearless crusader” for the natural preservation and restoration of South Florida. Her tireless efforts earned her several variations of the nickname “Grande Dame of the Everglades” as well as the hostility of agricultural and business interests looking to benefit from land development in Florida. She received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was inducted into several halls of fame.
Douglas lived to 108, working until nearly the end of her life for Everglades restoration. Upon her death, an obituary in The Independent in London stated, “In the history of the American environmental movement, there have been few more remarkable figures than Marjory Stoneman Douglas.”
23 Quotes by Marjory Stoneman Douglas
- 1.
There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth; remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 2.
To be a friend of the Everglades is not necessarily to spend time wandering around out there.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 3.
Sometimes, I tell them more than they wanted to know.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 4.
I’ll talk about the Everglades at the drop of a hat.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 5.
Conservation is now a dead word.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 6.
I’m just a tough old woman.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 7.
No one is satisfied with their life’s work.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 8.
I wanted to go to a good college, and my mind was set on Wellesley.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 9.
You have to stand up for some things in this world.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 10.
There is always the need to carry on.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 11.
It’s a little bit late in the day for men to object that women are getting outside their proper sphere.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 12.
I feel greatly at fault in not having made a loud public protest about Belle Glade before this.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 13.
They are unique in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life that they enclose.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 14.
Since 1972, I’ve been going around making speeches on the Everglades.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 15.
Child welfare ought really to cover all sorts of topics, such as better water and sanitation and good roads, and clean streets and public parks and playgrounds.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 16.
You can’t conserve what you haven’t got.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 17.
All we need, really, is a change from a near frigid to a tropical attitude of mind.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 18.
The wealth of south Florida, but even more important, the meaning and significance of south Florida lies in the black muck of the Everglades and the inevitable development of this country to be the great tropic agricultural center of the world.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 19.
Whoever wants me to talk, I’ll come over and tell them about the necessity of preserving the Everglades.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 20.
No matter how poor my eyes are I can still talk.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 21.
I take advantage of every thing I can – age, hair, disability – because my cause is just.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 22.
The miracle of light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slowly moving, the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades. It is a river of grass.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer
- 23.
The problem of the environment is the extension of good housekeeping of the thinking woman.
Marjory Stoneman DouglasAmerican activist, journalist and writer