"The United States has long thought of itself as the land of infinite plenty, and historically we did have abundant resources. But now we are gradually exhausting our fisheries, our topsoil, our water. On top of that, we're coming to the end of world resources"
About this Quote
His list is deliberately unglamorous - fisheries, topsoil, water - the boring substrates of modern life. That’s the subtextual trick. Americans can argue endlessly about oil, GDP, or innovation; it’s harder to spin the slow collapse of soil fertility without sounding absurd. By naming resources that fail gradually, Diamond signals a different kind of crisis: not a single catastrophe but a series of invisible drawdowns, each one easy to ignore until it isn’t.
Then he zooms out: "the end of world resources". The move is rhetorical escalation with a purpose. It denies the usual escape hatch - imports, substitution, frontier optimism - and recasts American consumption as part of a global ledger. Context matters: Diamond’s work is obsessed with societal self-sabotage, how prosperous cultures normalize unsustainable habits until the baseline shifts. The intent isn’t to predict apocalypse on a deadline; it’s to expose the national romance with limitlessness as a dangerous political comfort.
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| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Diamond, Jared. (2026, January 15). The United States has long thought of itself as the land of infinite plenty, and historically we did have abundant resources. But now we are gradually exhausting our fisheries, our topsoil, our water. On top of that, we're coming to the end of world resources. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-united-states-has-long-thought-of-itself-as-153536/
Chicago Style
Diamond, Jared. "The United States has long thought of itself as the land of infinite plenty, and historically we did have abundant resources. But now we are gradually exhausting our fisheries, our topsoil, our water. On top of that, we're coming to the end of world resources." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-united-states-has-long-thought-of-itself-as-153536/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The United States has long thought of itself as the land of infinite plenty, and historically we did have abundant resources. But now we are gradually exhausting our fisheries, our topsoil, our water. On top of that, we're coming to the end of world resources." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-united-states-has-long-thought-of-itself-as-153536/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.
