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

There's another disadvantage to the use of the flashlight: like many other mechanical gadgets it tends to separate a man from the world around him. If I switch it on my eyes adapt to it and I can see only the small pool of light it makes in front of me; I am isolated. Leaving the flashlight in my pocket where it belongs, I remain a part of the environment I walk through and my vision though limited has no sharp or definite boundary.

The axiom of conditioned repetition, like the binomial theorem, is nothing but a piece of insolence.

The earth, like the sun, like the air, belongs to everyone - and to no one.

Why can't we simply borrow what is useful to us from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, especially Zen, as we borrow from Christianity, science, American Indian traditions and world literature in general, including philosophy, and let the rest go hang? Borrow what we need but rely principally upon our own senses, common sense and daily living experience.

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

The tragic sense of life: our heroic acceptance of the suffering of others.