Andrew Weil

“In the world at large, people are rewarded or punished in ways that are often utterly random. In the garden, cause and effect, labor and reward, are re-coupled. Gardening makes sense in a senseless world. By extension, then, the more gardens in the world, the more justice, the more sense is created.”

“The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight and well-being.”

“You can't afford to get sick, and you can't depend on the present health care system to keep you well. It's up to you to protect and maintain your body's innate capacity for health and healing by making the right choices in how you live.”

“Fear and greed are potent motivators. When both of these forces push in the same direction, virtually no human being can resist.”

“I have argued for years that we do not have a health care system in America. We have a disease-management system - one that depends on ruinously expensive drugs and surgeries that treat health conditions after they manifest rather than giving our citizens simple diet, lifestyle and therapeutic tools to keep them healthy.”

“If we can make the correct diagnosis, the healing can begin. If we can't, both our personal health and our economy are doomed.”

“We need to accept the seemingly obvious fact that a toxic environment can make people sick and that no amount of medical intervention can protect us. The health care community must become a powerful political lobby for environmental policy and legislation.”

“Gardening is not trivial. If you believe that it is, closely examine why you feel that way. You may discover that this attitude has been forced upon you by mass media and the crass culture it creates and maintains. The fact is, gardening is just the opposite - it is, or should be, a central, basic expression of human life.”

“I am a particular fan of integrative exercise - that is, exercise that occurs in the course of doing some productive activity such as gardening, bicycling to work, doing home improvement projects and so on.”

“Get people back into the kitchen and combat the trend toward processed food and fast food.”

“Meditation while walking has a long, noble history in ancient spiritual disciplines.”

“One of the most obvious ways dogs can improve our physical and mental health is via daily walks.”

“I am not against all forms of high-tech medicine. Drugs and surgeries have a secure place in the treatment of serious health conditions. But modern American medicine treats almost every health condition as if it were an emergency.”

“Genuine happiness comes from within, and often it comes in spontaneous feelings of joy.”

“By keeping my hand in that, it's the way I keep learning. The main way you learn in medicine is by practicing and working with patients.”

“My passion for gardening may strike some as selfish, or merely an act of resignation in the face of overwhelming problems that beset the world. It is neither. I have found that each garden is just what Voltaire proposed in Candide: a microcosm of a just and beautiful society.”