Erik Dammann Quotes

Norway, Author
May 9, 1931

Erik Dammann is a Norwegian author, environmentalist and government scholar. He is mostly known for founding of the Norwegian-based organization, The Future in Our Hands . In 1982, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "challenging Western values and lifestyles in order to promote a more responsible attitude to the environment and the third world".

Also known as Scholar, Environmentalist

Belief in the deeper values of the common people is our only hope. We cannot judge from how people behave under pressure of a society that forces them to compete for self-interest or to be excluded. We must step out of our narrow social environment, and learn to know the underprivileged that have never participated in our activities. When we have them with us that will be real change from below.

Erik Dammann
- Know
- Learn
- Values
In the same way that we today think that the slave trade and colonial exploitation were inhuman and inconceivably bestial ways of acquiring riches, there is no doubt that coming generations will think that our form of world trade and distribution of the world's benefits were just as inconceivable and inhuman.

Erik Dammann