Good Solutions Are Small, Obvious, Simple, and Cheap

[W]hat I have described here... is a big problem, and it is the overwhelming tendency of our time to assume that a big problem calls for a big solution. I do not believe in efficacy of big solutions. I believe that they not only tend to prolong and complicate the problems they are meant to solve, but that they cause new problems. On the other hand, if the solution is small, obvious, simple, and cheap, then it may quickly and permanently solve the immediate problem and many others as well.

—Wendell Berry,The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture

After all the insightful and prophetic commentary Berry gives us on culture and agriculture, this may be one of the most radical things he says, on the last pages of his book. This really gives me pause in all my hubris and youthful passion to see the world made right. It's a clarion call for wisdom, for understanding, for patience.