Why the critics, like a flock of ducks, always move in perfect unison: Their authority with the public depends upon an appearance of unanimous agreement. One dissenting voice would shatter the whole fragile structure.

There are two kinds of people I cannot abide: bigots and any well-organized ethnic group.

Ah yes, the head is full of books. The hard part is to force them down through the bloodstream and out through the fingers.

A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis.

The best people, like the best wines, come from the hills.

The "terror" of the French Revolution lasted for ten years. The terror that preceded and led to it lasted for a thousand years.

I’m tired of doing what I don’t want to do to live the way I don’t want to live.