Natural Disasters Quotes

“A tornado of thought is unleashed after each new insight. This in turn results in an earthquake of assumptions. These are natural disasters that re-shape the spirit.”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“If there is a deity of the kind imagined by votaries of the big mail-order religions such as Christianity and Islam, and if this deity is the creator of all things, then it is responsible for cancer, meningitis, millions of spontaneous abortions everyday, mass killings of people in floods and earthquakes-and too great mountain of other natural evils to list besides. It would also,as the putative designer of human nature, ultimately be responsible or the ubiquitous and unbeatable human propensities for hatred, malice, greed, and all other sources of the cruelty and murder people inflict on each other hourly.”
― A.C. Grayling

“Humans and nature can never be friends!
Nature will never hesitate to starve you in the drought, drown you in the rain, burn you in the sun, and kill you with an earthquake, a hurricane or a disease; and as such, nature should always be seen as an enemy not a friend.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“You might think that, by now, people would have become accustomed to the idea of natural catastrophes. We live on a planet that is still cooling and which has fissures and faults in its crust; this much is accepted even by those who think that the globe is only six thousand years old, as well as by those who believe that the earth was "designed" to be this way. Even in such a case, it is to be expected that earthquakes will occur and that, if they occur under the seabed, tidal waves will occur also. Yet two sorts of error are still absolutely commonplace. The first of these is the idiotic belief that seismic events are somehow "timed" to express the will of God. Thus, reasoning back from the effect, people will seriously attempt to guess what sin or which profanity led to the verdict of the tectonic plates. The second error, common even among humanists, is to borrow the same fallacy for satirical purposes and to employ it to disprove a benign deity.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“In the aftermath of the recent wave action in the Indian Ocean, even the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williamson [sic], proved himself a latter-day Voltairean by whimpering that he could see how this might shake belief in a friendly creator. Williamson is of course a notorious fool, who does an almost perfect imitation of a bleating and frightened sheep, but even so, one is forced to rub one's eyes in astonishment. Is it possible that a grown man could live so long and still have his personal composure, not to mention his lifetime job description, upset by a large ripple of seawater?”
― Christopher Hitchens

“That natural disasters are required to provide Americans with a glimpse of reality in their own country is an indication of the deep rot infecting the official political culture.”
― Tariq Ali, The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad

“Humanity and nature can never be friends! Nature will not hesitate to starve you in a drought, drown you in the rain, scorch you under the sun, or cause your demise through earthquakes, hurricanes, or diseases. Hence, nature should always be perceived as an adversary, not an ally.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“What struck me, in reading the reports from Sri Lanka, was the mild disgrace of belonging to our imperfectly evolved species in the first place. People who had just seen their neighbors swept away would tell the reporters that they knew a judgment had been coming, because the Christians had used alcohol and meat at Christmas or because ... well, yet again you can fill in the blanks for yourself. It was interesting, though, to notice that the Buddhists were often the worst. Contentedly patting an image of the chubby lord on her fencepost, a woman told the New York Times that those who were not similarly protected had been erased, while her house was still standing. There were enough such comments, almost identically phrased, to make it seem certain that the Buddhist authorities had been promulgating this consoling and insane and nasty view. That would not surprise me.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“Trials in life help us to grow. They make us better. Challenge yourself to become a better version of yourself as a result of the flood, and to take what you have learned to help others. Focus on tomorrow, not on past mistakes – yours or anyone else’s.”
― Dr. Dwan Reed

“For Cities, the ability to mitigate the effects of natural disasters is a plus for the E in ESG and an indictor of bond quality.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“Let these historic moments move you, inspire you and invigorate you for as long as the feeling lasts because, believe me, that initial adrenaline and humanitarian solidarity will wear off. Ride it as long as you can. Let it make you be a better person, and let it wake you up from the complacency in your life.”
― Tokyo Twilighter

“Everyone knows the great energies running amok cast
terrible shadows, that each of the so-called
senseless acts has its thread looping
back through the world and into a human heart.
And meanwhile
the gold-trimmed thunder
wanders the sky; the river
may be filling the cellars of the sleeping town.
Cyclone, fire, and their merry cousins
bring us to grief — but these are the hours
with the old wooden-god faces;
we lift them to our shoulders like so many
black coffins, we continue walking
into the future. I don't mean
there are no bodies in the river,
or bones broken by the wind. I mean
everyone who has heard the lethal train-roar
of the tornado swears there was no mention ever
of any person, or reason — I mean
the waters rise without any plot upon
history, or even geography. Whatever
power of the earth rampages, we turn to it
dazed but anonymous eyes; whatever
the name of the catastrophe, it is never
the opposite of love.”
― Mary Oliver, Dream Work

“The quake experience stays in our hearts, ready to strike again with greater force. Memory looms with the potential to return.”
― Santosh Kalwar

“Death is no respecter of persons. Natural disasters are no respecters of nations.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“A colonial economy by definition is a dependent economy; a centralized, lopsided, and distorted economy. And as we have seen, an intensely vulnerable economy.”
― Naomi Klein, On Fire: The Case for the Green New Deal

“It takes an earthquake to remind us that we walk on the crust of an unfinished planet.”
― Charles Kuralt

“Earthquakes traveling through the interior of the globe are like so many messengers sent out to explore a new land. The messages are constantly coming and seismologists are fast learning to read them.”
― Reginald Aldworth Daly

“Death is no respecter of persons. Natural disasters and pandemics are no respecters of nations.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“In the year before Joanna’s protest at its Manila office, Shell paid out more money to its shareholders than any other company in the world: $20 billion, comfortably beating second-placed Apple. Its chief executive Ben van Beurden earned over $62,000 a day. Such fantastic rewards were possible only because the full costs of Shell’s products were being shouldered by others, who would continue to bear them − along with people yet unborn − far into the future.”
― Simon Mundy, Race for Tomorrow: Survival, Innovation and Profit on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis

“I can see no hope for humanity so long as one's right to live depends upon one's ability to pay the cost of living imposed by those who exploit our daily needs. I think I know human nature well enough to know that the average individual works better when encouraged and praised, and does his worst when humiliated and looked upon as a slave. Some kind of congenial work is necessary to contentment. From the small boy tinkering with the construction of a toy to the old lady knitting, with no thought in their minds of cash payment-we see the desire of human beings to be doing something with their minds and hands. If the continual pressure for monetary gain whenever we render any kind of service were removed, I believe people would enjoy working for the common good. This is demonstrated over and over again in time of floods and other disasters when the call to communal welfare is the only incentive.”
― Art Young, Art Young: His Life and Times

“All the wonderful things in the world. All the ways life was better even if the world wasn't. This stutter-step of disaster after natural disaster was just a blip next to LED lights, driverless cars, a possible end to poverty through gene-edited crops.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Hummingbird Salamander

“One thing you must know about science and technology. No science, no technology, is superior to nature. To assume otherwise is to invite doom.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Find A Cause Outside Yourself: Sermon of Sustainability

“Every government is accountable and responsible if its rescue system is inaccurate and insufficient in rescuing the victims and sufferers of natural disasters and catastrophes, even if the government is already aware of such disasters.”
― Ehsan Sehgal

“If people do not die when measures are taken against a natural disaster, the name of natural disaster deaths when measures are not taken is nothing but murder!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“When will humanity, which has experienced countless natural disasters, realize that the universe we live in is a formidable battlefield? The universe is the most interesting friend of every living creature, because it is both our greatest friend and our worst enemy! The greatest weapon against the enmity of the universe is science. The technical shields that science offers us are the most effective weapons we can use against storms, earthquakes, fires and cosmic disasters!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Just as we cannot change our nature, we cannot change the destructive course of Nature.”
― H.C. Roberts, Harp and the Lyre: Exposed

“Fragility is the single most salient cause of displacement around the world today. Even factors that may become increasingly common drivers of flight like climate change and natural disasters are only likely to cause mass cross-border movements if they affect fragile states. When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans it did not require people to leave the United States. In contrast, when the earthquake struck Haiti many people fled to the neighbouring Dominican Republic because they could not find a domestic remedy or resolution to their situation.”
― Alexander Betts, Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

“The government never tells you the true death tolls!”
― Steven Magee

“It's said that Richard Harding Davis was dispatched by William Randolph Hearst to cover the Johnstown flood. Here was his lead: "God stood on a mountaintop here and looked at what his waters had wrought." Hearst cabled back: "Forget flood. Interview God.”
― Roger Ebert, A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length: More Movies That Suck

“Let us reflect upon the state of Earth Rishona and see clearly its distortion and imbalance — its out-of-shape and squished beauty. For its elegance has failed, its height has been pushed below its natural stature, and the image is unrecognisable.”
― H.C. Roberts, Harp and the Lyre: Exchange