BEST Robin Wall Kimmerer Books & Quotes of All Time (February 2023)

by Arthur Worsley
M.A. Psychology, Oxford. McKinsey Alum. Founder & Editor at TAoL.

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Contents

1. Who Is Robin Wall Kimmerer?

2. The Best Robin Wall Kimmerer Books of All Time

3. Best Robin Wall Kimmerer Quotes

4. Wish There Was a Faster/Easier Way?

Who Is Robin Wall Kimmerer?

Robin Wall Kimmerer (born 1953) is an American Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology and the author of numerous scientific articles and books, including the award-winning Braiding Sweetgrass.

Learn more about Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Best Robin Wall Kimmerer Books of All Time

Why these best Robin Wall Kimmerer books and not others? To stay objective, I rank all my book recommendations by a combination of what’s most loved (Goodreads rating), what’s most popular (Goodreads review count) and what’s proven timlessly relevant (first publication date).

This isn’t a whimsical list. It’s a data-driven, crowdsourced collection of the best Robin Wall Kimmerer books ever published as decided by book lovers like you.

And if you think something's missing? I LOVE book recommendations so if there are any other books by Robin Wall Kimmerer that you think deserve mentioning, email me and I’ll be sure to include them in the next round of updates.

Until then, here are the best Robin Wall Kimmerer books of all time...

Best Robin Wall Kimmerer Books: Braiding Sweetgrass

1. Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer (FREE Summary)

Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Braiding Sweetgrass is an elegant collection of hopeful, moving, and wistfully funny essays about the natural world. It's also a celebration of our reciprocal relationship to the planet - by botanist, teacher, and indigenous scientist, Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Published 2013 // 391 pages // Rated 4.6 over 53,600 reviews on Goodreads

Best Robin Wall Kimmerer Books: Gathering Moss

2. Gathering Moss - Robin Wall Kimmerer

A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

Published 2003 // 168 pages // Rated 4.4 over 1,100 reviews on Goodreads

Best Robin Wall Kimmerer Books: The Democracy of Species

3. The Democracy of Species - Robin Wall Kimmerer

Published 2021 // 88 pages // Rated 4.5 over 100 reviews on Goodreads

See all Robin Wall Kimmerer's books on Amazon
Visit Robin Wall Kimmerer's Goodreads profile

Best Robin Wall Kimmerer Quotes

Here are some of the best Robin Wall Kimmerer of all time...

"For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it."

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

"In Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as “the younger brothers of Creation.” We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn—we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance."

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

"Plants know how to make food and medicine from light and water, and then they give it away."

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

"Something is broken when the food comes on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in slippery plastic, a carcass of a being whose only chance at life was a cramped cage. That is not a gift of life; it is a theft."

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

"Ceremony is a vehicle for belonging—to a family, to a people, and to the land."

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

"Our toddlers speak of plants and animals as if they were people, extending to them self and intention and compassion—until we teach them not to. We quickly retrain them and make them forget. When we tell them that the tree is not a who, but an it, we make that maple an object; we put a barrier between us, absolving ourselves of moral responsibility and opening the door to exploitation. Saying it makes a living land into “natural resources.” If a maple is an it, we can take up the chain saw. If a maple is a her, we think twice."

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

"In some Native languages the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us.""

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

"Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us."

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

"Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond."

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

"The Honorable Harvest: 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."

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

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