As long as there are young men with the light of adventure in their eyes and a touch of wildness in their souls, rapids will be run.

Not only has wilderness been a force in molding our character as a people, but its influence continues, and will, if we are wise enough to preserve it on this continent, be a stabilizing power as well as a spiritual reserve for the future.

Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium.

Beauty is composed of many things and never stands alone. It is part of horizons, blue in the distance, great primeval silences, knowledge of all things of the earth. It embodies the hopes and dreams of those who have gone before, including the spirit world; it is so fragile it can be destroyed by a sound or thought. It may be infinitesimally small or encompass the universe itself. It comes in a swift conception wherever nature has not been disturbed.

Simplicity in all things is the secret of the wilderness and one of its most valuable lessons

At times on quiet waters one does not speak aloud but only in whispers, for then all noise is sacrilege.

When a man is part of his canoe, he is part of all that canoes have ever known.