Wilderness
QUOTES
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"But
love of the wilderness is more than a hunger for
what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression
of loyalty to the earth which bore us and sustains
us, the only home we shall ever know, the only
paradise we ever need - if only we had eyes to
see." -- Edward
Abbey
"I
come more and more to the conclusion that wilderness,
in America or anywhere else, is the only thing
left that is worth saving." -- Edward
Abbey
"The
idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs
more defenders." -- Edward
Abbey
"Wilderness
is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."
-- Edward Abbey
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"Those
who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves
of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in
the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of
the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring.
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated
refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes
after night, and spring after the winter."
-- Rachel Carson
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I
realized that Eastern thought had somewhat more
compassion for all living things. Man was a form
of life that in another reincarnation might possibly
be a horsefly or a bird of paradise or a deer.
So a man of such a faith, looking at animals,
might be looking at old friends or ancestors.
In the East the wilderness has no evil connotation;
it is thought of as an expression of the unity
and harmony of the universe.
-- Justice
William O. Douglas
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"If
you live for love you spread kindness and compassion
everywhere you go. When you stop believing in your
heart you are but a sterile vessel wandering in
the wilderness."
-- Francis Hegmeyer |
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"Wilderness
is the raw material out of which man has hammered
the artifact called civilization." ~ Aldo
Leopold
"Wilderness
is a resource which can shrink but not grow...
the creation of new wilderness in the full sense
of the word is impossible."
~ Aldo Leopold
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We
have always had reluctance to see a tract of land
which is empty of men as anything but a void. The
"waste howling wilderness" of Deuteronomy is typical.
The Oxford Dictionary defines wilderness as wild
or uncultivated land which is occupied "only" by
wild animals. Places not used by us are "wastes."
Areas not occupied by us are "desolate." Could the
desolation be in the soul of man?
~ John A. Livingston |
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What
little wilderness remains displays the patterns
we must return to, if our species and as many
others as now remain are to persist here a while.
Ideally this would call for a broad cultural rapprochment
with the wild, a long overdue armistice in civilization’s
war upon it.
~ Stephanie Mills
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The
clearest way into the Universe is through a forest
wilderness. ~ John
Muir
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"The
battle we have fought, and are still fighting
for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict
between right and wrong, and we cannot expect
to see the end of it ... So we must count on watching
and striving for these trees, and should always
be glad to find anything so surely good and noble
to strive for."
~ John Muir
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Wilderness
itself is the basis of all our civilization. I
wonder if we have enough reverence for life to
concede to wilderness the right to live on?
~ Margaret Murie
"I
hope the United States of America is not so rich
that she can afford to let these wildernesses
pass by, or so poor she cannot afford to keep
them." ~ Margaret
Murie
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"To
secure our environmental legacy for future generations,
we must find ways to reconcile humanity more satisfactorily
with the natural systems upon which all human life
and civilizations depend. We must recognize that
the natural systems of which we are part have an
intrinsic worth transcending narrow utilitarian
values. They must be preserved for their own sake.
No philosopher or religious thinker has been more
sensitive to this intimate relationship between
humanity and nature than St. Francis of Assisi.
The powerful contemporary environmental tradition
of preservation, of reverence for wilderness and
protection for all living things - the ideal that
sees, as John Muir said, ‘in God’s wildness... the
hope of the world’ - virtually began with St. Francis."
-- William K. Reilly, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency |
"…short-sighted
men who in their greed and selfishness will, if
permitted, rob our country of half its charm by
their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful
wild things..."
-- Theodore
Roosevelt |
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By
means of trees, wildlife could be conserved, pollution
decreased and the beauty of our landscapes enhanced.
This is the way, or at least one of the ways,
to spiritual, moral, and cultural regeneration.
~ E.F. Schumacher
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Something
will have gone out of us as a people if we ever
let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we
permit the last virgin forests to be turned into
comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive
the few remaining members of the wild species into
zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear
air and dirty the last clean streams and push our
paved roads through the last of the silence, so
that never again will Americans be free in their
own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks
of human and automotive waste.
~Wallace Stegner |
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"Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and
wildlife are in fact plans to protect man."
~ Stewart Udall
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"If
you know wilderness in the way that you know love,
you would be unwilling to let it go.... This is
the story of our past and it will be the story
of our future."
~ Terry
Tempest Williams
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