Twenty centuries of 'progress' have brought the average citizen a vote, a national anthem, a Ford, a bank account, and a high opinion of himself, but not the capacity to live in high density without befouling and denuding his environment, nor a conviction that such capacity, rather than such density, is the true test of whether he is civilized.

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

Tell me of what plant-birthday a man takes notice, and I shall tell you a good deal about his vocation, his hobbies, his hay fever, and the general level of his ecological education.

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

I do not imply that this philosophy of land was always clear to me. It is rather the end result of a life journey.

If we lose our wilderness, we have nothing left worth fighting for.

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