Henry A. Wallace was a prolific writer and thinker whose thoughts ranged from agriculture to religion, from politics to science, and beyond. Below you'll find a smattering of Wallace's words on some of these topics.

Wallace's words on The Land, Science, Agriculture, World War II, Religion, Politics, Vision, Red Baiting

"Everything is made of our Mother, the Earth. Man is part of the living landscape, made of the same natural processes and laws. His body, his thoughts, and his spirit are the product of that landscape; that sun, soil, wind, and air. We are slowly learning to thnk in terms of a new science called ecology, in terms of inevitable relationships — to recognize that all living things under the sun — the clouds, the rocks, the soil, the streams; and the people and the spirit of the people — are all of the same going concern." — "Soil Defense" 1941

"People in cities may forget the soil for as long as a hundred years, but mother nature's memory is long and she will not let them forget indefinitely."

"The soil is the mother of man and if we forget her, life eventually weakens."

"Science, of course, is not like wheat or cotton or automobiles. It cannot be over-produced. It does not come under the law of diminishing utility, which makes each extra unit in the stock of a commodity of less use than the preceeding unit. In fact, the latest knowledge is usually the best. Moreover, knowledge grows or dies. It cannot live in cold storage. It is perishable and must be constantly renewed. Static science would not be science long, but a mere junk heap of rotting fragments. Our investment in science would vanish if we did not freshen it constantly and keep training an alert scientific personnel."

"You are scientists who have learned to use your hands in a practical way. In so doing you will be intensely patriotic, serving your country in the most fundamental way. You will not belong to the right or the left or the center, but to the earth and those who work the earth lovingly and effectively so that it may be preserved and improved century after century." — 1963 Commencement address at the Pan American School of Agriculture in Honduras

"The cause of liberty and the cause of true science must always be one and the same. For science cannot flourish except in an atmosphere of freedom, and freedom cannot survive unless there is an honest facing of facts.... Democracy — and that term includes free science — must apply itself to meeting the material need of men for work, for income, for goods, for health, for security, and to meeting their spiritual need for dignity, for knowledge, for self-expression, for adventure and for reverence. And it must succeed."

"Scientific understanding is our joy. Economic and political understanding is our duty."

"The Science of sustained yield, whether with soil, trees, or wild life that lives on the grass and wanders through the forests, or fishes that swim the water, is paramount to human welfare." — "Sustained Yield" 1943

"Sustained yield in my opinion is a higher principle than conservation because it implies continued use, continued service to humanity. There is sustained yield of soil, of water, of grass, of trees, of crops, of migrating waterfowl and other wild life, and finally of human values." — Statement at cartographer's dinner, Oct 1, 1943

"I have no patience with those who claim that the present surplus of farm products means that we should stop our efforts at improved agricultural efficiency. What we need is not less science in farming, but more science in economics.... Science has no doubt made the surplus possible, but science is not responsible for our failure to distribute the fruits of labor equitably."

"Less corn, more clover, more money" — slogan for Wallace's campaign for voluntary reduction of corn production, early 1920s

"The object of this war is to make sure everybody in the world has the privilege of drinking a quart of milk a day." Wallace to Madame Litvinov, wife of Soviet Ambassador to Washington.

"The wisdom of our actions in the first three years of peace will determine the course of world history for half a century." — Henry A. Wallace, 1941

"Every minister should be given a course in economics against the background of the prophets and the Sermon on the Mount." (Schapsmeier Agrarian 87)

"So far as the economics of the situation is concerned, Isaiah, 'Uncle Henry,' and the modern economists who talk about increasing the consumer's purchasing power are recommending the same cure for hard times. This cure is simply that a greater percentage of the income of the nation be turned back to the mass of the people. We can afford to spend some time in meditating on the principles that a leader of reform in Palestine proclaimed some 2,600 years ago." (Schapsmeier Agrarian 135)

"I think the church should be afire today with the keenness of its desire to bring about social justice" (Schapsmeier Agrarian 136)

"Parties are of value only insofar as they make it possible to put into action certain principles of social justice." (Schapsmeier Agrarian 137)

"I've always believed that if you envision something that hasn't been, that can be, and bring it into being, that is a tremendously worthwhile thing to do."

"Our utopias are the blueprints of our future civilization, and as such, airy structures though they are, they really play a bigger part in the progress of man than our more material structures of brick and steel. the habit of building utopias shows to a degree whether our race is made up of dull-spirited bipeds or whether it is made up of men who want to enjoy the fill savoring of existence that comes only when they feel themselves working with the forces of nature to remake the world nearer to their heart's desire."

"What we approach is not a new continent but a new state of heart and mind resulting in new standards of accomplishment. We must invent, build and put to work new social machinery. This machinery will carry out the Sermon on the Mount as well as the present social machinery carries out and intensifies the law of the jungle." — New Frontiers 1934

"If I fail to cry out that I am anti-Communist, it is not because I am friendly to Communism, but because at this time of growing intolerance I refuse to join even the outer circle of that band of men who stir the steaming cauldron of hate and fear." — May 19, 1948

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