All conservation of wildness is self-defeating, for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish.

That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics.

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.

Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them

What a dull world if we knew all about geese!

Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers.

Mechanized recreation already has seized nine-tenths of the woods and mountains; a decent respect for minorities should dedicate the other tenth to wilderness.