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.

Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.

What our economists call a depressed area almost always turns out to be a cleaner, freer, more livable place than most.

The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages - as if the savages weren't dangerous enough already.

Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.

Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic....So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.

My notion of a great novel is something like a five-hundred-page shaggy-dog story, with only the punch line omitted.