Not to have known - as most men have not - either the mountain or the desert is not to have known one's self. Not to have known one's self is to have known no one.

Man is, perhaps, no more prone to war than he used to be and no more inclined to commit other evil deeds. But a given amount of ill will or folly will go further than it used to.

To be individually righteous is the first of all duties, come what may to ones self, to one's country, to society, and to civilization itself.

Man is the only one in whom the instinct of life falters long enough to enable it to ask the question "Why?

We need some contact with the things we sprang from. We need nature at least as a part of the context of our lives. Without cities we cannot be civilized. Without nature, without wilderness even, we are compelled to renounce an important part of our heritage.

To have passed through life and never experienced solitude is to have never known oneself. To have never known oneself is to have never known anyone.

The snow itself is lonely or, if you prefer, self-sufficient. There is no other time when the whole world seems composed of one thing and one thing only.