Quotations and Literature Forum

does anybody know who this is by and what the actual wording is?

we dont inherit the earth from out ancestors, we borrow it from our children
-?

I'm thinking it's a saying. Here are some of the attributions I saw for it:

We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
~ American Indian philosophy
Author unkown
David Brower (environmentalist) [I doubt that he originated it]
http://www.peopleportfolio.com/funpage.htm
Pennsylvania Dutch saying

Nous n'heritons pas cette terre de nos ancetres, mais nous l'empruntons de nos enfants.
We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, rather we borrow it from our children.

"We do not inherit the Earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children" are words ascribed to David Brower. This quote is carved in granite at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. When David Brower was first told of that quote, he didn't remember even making it. Subsequent research reveals it was made by Brower at an interview in a bar in North Carolina. Brower, after musing a bit, concluded that those words were too conservative for him. He wrote " . . . We're not borrowing from our children, we're stealing from them - and it's not even considered a crime."

It's commonly regarded as a Native American saying. More specifically, it is attributed to the Haida and Lakota Sioux, and also to a number of Chiefs. Hard to be sure without a specific identification.

"We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." Native American Saying

“We don’t inherit land from our parents; we borrow it from our children.”
a Lakota proverb

"We do not inherit the earth from our parents; we borrow it from our children." Chief Seattle

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children."
Chief Seattle - from the Cherokee of Georgia web site
Santana, Kiowa Chief
Chief Crazy Horse

Well, that excerpt from the article THINK LIKE A MOUNTAIN By Bob Maichle [in The Spring Mountains ECHO Vol. 9, NO. 2 May 1998 to July 1998] has the ring of truth, it sounds good to me. I can't help but be a little suspicious, though.
http://www.lvrj.com/communitylink/sma/echo/mayjuly98/

The National Aquarium in Baltimore

Interior View
http://www.aqua.org/information/whoweare/questions.html

An edit: I see Henry has checked in. His reply supports my doubts that David Brower originated this quote.

A letter to James Madison from Paris on September 6, 1789 contains a discussion of the "... question Whether one generation of men has the right to bind another, ...." Thomas Jefferson tells his friend Madison, "I set out on this ground which I suppose to be self evident, "that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living;" that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it."

thanx guys