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.

Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact called civilization.

The first law of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts

It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value. By value, I of course mean something far broader than mere economic value; I mean value in the philosophical sense.

One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring.

Wilderness is a resource which can shrink but not grow.

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.