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.

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

Wilderness, then, assumes unexpected importance as a laboratory for the study of land - health.

The rich diversity of the world's cultures reflects a corresponding diversity in the wilds that gave them birth.

Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching- even when doing the wrong thing is legal.

Man always kills the thing he loves, and so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?

That dark laboratory we call the soil.