If human nature eventually is going to take the place of nature everywhere, those of us who have been naturalists will have to transpose the faith in nature which is inherent in the profession to a faith in man-if necessary, man alone in the world.

It would be hard to define chaos better than as a world where children decide they don't want to live.

The question of whether it's God's green earth is not at center stage, except in the sense that if so, one is reminded with some regularity that He may be dying.

If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can't go at dawn and not many places he can't go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking - one sport you shouldn't have to reserve a time and a court for.

Men often compete with one another until the day they die. Comradeship consists of rubbing shoulders jocularly with a competitor.

Sophistication" is another word for that inventive mix of tolerance, resilience, and resourcefulness city people develop.

True solitude is a din of birdsong, seething leaves, whirling colors, or a clamor of tracks in the snow.