# Quote — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

> Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them.
>
> Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life. Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer.
>
> Never take the first. Never take the last. Take only what you need.
>
> Take only that which is given.
>
> Never take more than half. Leave some for others. Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
>
> Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken. Share.
>
> Give thanks for what you have been given.
>
> Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.
>
> Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.

- Author: [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md)
- Book: [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md)
- Page: 183
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/know-the-ways

## More from this book

> The world is more than your thoughtless commute. We, the collateral, are your wealth, your teachers, your security, your family. Your strange hunger for ease should not mean a death sentence for the rest of Creation.

p. 359 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/the-world-is-more.md)

> It has been said that people of the modern world suffer a great sadness, a "species loneliness"—estrangement from the rest of Creation. We have built this isolation with our fear, with our arrogance, and with our homes brightly lit against the night.

p. 358 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/it-has-been.md)

> Naturalists live in a world of wounds that only they can see.

p. 357 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/naturalists-live-in-a-world.md)