For those who want to understand the issues of the environmental crisis, Encounters with the Archdruid is a superb book. McPhee reveals more nuances of the value revolution that dominates the new age of ecology than most writers could pack into a volume twice as long. I marvel at his capacity to listen intently and extract the essence of a man and his philosophy in the fewest possible words.

The most common trait of all primitive peoples is a reverence for the life-giving earth, and the Native American shared this elemental ethic: The land was alive to his loving touch, and he, its son, was brother to all creatures.

Wilderness, like the national park system, was an American idea.

I plowed fields with horses and worked as a hired hand in high school for 50 cents a day.

We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.

I dont remember a big fight between the Republicans and Democrats in the Nixon administration or President Gerald Ford and so on.

Mining is like a search-and-destroy mission.