Is it possible to grow wiser without knowing it? One hopes so. We all hope so.

We are befouling and destroying our own home, we are committing a slow but accelerating race suicide and life murder - planetary biocide. Now there is a mighty theme for a mighty book but a challenge to which no modern novelist or poet has yet responded. Where is our Melville, our Milton, our Thomas Mann when we need him most?

Those who dream of the joys of living in a space colony should live in a space colony.

The national parks belong to everyone. To the people. To all of us. The government keeps saying so and maybe, in this one case at least, the government is telling the truth. Hard to believe, but possible.

The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.

As Mark Twain said, 'I love Wagner -- if only they'd cut out all that damned singing!'

One of the pleasant things about small town life is that everyone, whether rich or poor, liked or disliked, has some kind of a role and place in the community. I never felt that living in a city - as I once did for a couple of years.