“Wilderness
is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives
as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of
the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and
betraying the principle of civilization itself.”
“The love of wilderness is more than a hunger
for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the
earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever
know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see.”
“A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle
will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists
can in a hundred miles.”
“You can't study the darkness by flooding it
with light.”
“Better
a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”
“May your trails be
crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your
mountains rise into and above the clouds.”
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology
of the cancer cell.”
“A patriot must always be ready to defend his
country against his government.”
“Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it
up every once in a while, then a layer of scum floats to the top.”
“Sentiment without action is the ruin of the
soul.”
“The fear of death follows from the fear of
life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
“If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the
roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture—that is immortality enough
for me. And as much as anyone deserves.”
“The tragedy of modern war is that the young
men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the
capitals.”
“Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when
and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the
State.”
“The ugliest thing in America is greed, the
lust for power and domination, the lunatic ideology of perpetual Growth - with
a capital G. 'Progress' in our nation has for too long been confused with
'Growth'; I see the two as different, almost incompatible, since progress
means, or should mean, change for the better - toward social justice, a livable
and open world, equal opportunity and affirmative action for all forms of life.
And I mean all forms, not merely the human. The grizzly, the wolf, the rattlesnake,
the condor, the coyote, the crocodile, whatever, each and every species has as
much right to be here as we do.”
“Where all think alike there is little danger
of innovation.”
“Whenever I see a photograph of some sportsman
grinning over his kill, I am always impressed by the striking moral and
esthetic superiority of the dead animal to the live one.”
“An economic system which can only expand or
expire must be false to all that is human.”
“I despise my own nation most. Because I know
it best. Because I still love it, suffering from Hope. For me, that's patriotism.”
“When guns are outlawed, only the Government
will have guns. The Government - and a few outlaws. If that happens, you can
count me among the outlaws.”
“Each thing in its way, when true to its own
character, is equally beautiful.
“I am hopeful, though not full of hope, and the
only reason I don't believe in happy endings is because I don't believe in
endings.”
“If America could be, once again, a nation of
self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers, and artists, then the rich
would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor to rule: That
was the American dream.”
“If industrial man continues to multiply his
numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to
seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison
of his own making.”
“All we have, it seems to me, is the beauty of
art and nature and life, and the love which that beauty inspires.”
