The great question of life is not the question of death but the question of life. Fear of death shames us all.

The domination of nature leads to the domination of human nature.

I would give ten years off the beginning of my life to see, only once, Tyrannosaurus rex come rearing up from the elms of Central Park, a Morgan police horse screaming in its jaws. We can never have enough of nature.

To the question: Wilderness, who needs it? Doc would say: Because we like the taste of freedom, comrades. Because we like the smell of danger. But, thought Hayduke, what about the smell of fear, Dad?

What we need now are heroes and heroines, about a million of them, one brave deed is worth a thousand books. Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.

The most striking thing about the rich is the gracious democracy of their manners -- and the crude vulgarity of their way of life.

I always wanted to be a cowboy. But alas! I was burdened early with certain inescapable obligations to world literature.