The elemental simplicities of wilderness travel were thrills. They represented complete freedom to make mistakes. The wilderness gave those rewards and penalties, for wise and foolish acts against which civilization has built a thousand buffers.

Conservation is a positive exercise of skill and insight, not merely a negative exercise of abstinence and caution.

We face the question whether a still higher "standard of living" is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free.

I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades.

There are men charged with the duty of examining the construction of the plants, animals, and soils which are the instruments of the great orchestra. These men are called professors. Each selects one instrument and spends his life taking it apart and describing its strings and sounding boards. This process of dismemberment is called research. The place for dismemberment is called a university.

Wildflower corners are easy to maintain, but once gone, they are hard to rebuild.

We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in.