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WILDERNESS
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"But
love of the wilderness is more than a hunger for what
is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of
loyalty to the earth which bore us and sustains us,
the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise
we ever need - if only we had eyes to see." -- Edward
Abbey
"I
come more and more to the conclusion that wilderness,
in America or anywhere else, is the only thing left
that is worth saving." -- Edward
Abbey
"The
idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs
more defenders." -- Edward
Abbey
"Wilderness
is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."
-- Edward
Abbey
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"Those
who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves
of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the
migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides,
the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something
infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature
- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring
after the winter."
-- Rachel
Carson
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I
realized that Eastern thought had somewhat more compassion
for all living things. Man was a form of life that
in another reincarnation might possibly be a horsefly
or a bird of paradise or a deer. So a man of such
a faith, looking at animals, might be looking at old
friends or ancestors. In the East the wilderness has
no evil connotation; it is thought of as an expression
of the unity and harmony of the universe.
-- Justice
William O. Douglas
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"If
you live for love you spread kindness and compassion
everywhere you go. When you stop believing in your heart
you are but a sterile vessel wandering in the wilderness."
-- Francis Hegmeyer |
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"Wilderness
is the raw material out of which man has hammered
the artifact called civilization." ~ Aldo
Leopold
"Wilderness
is a resource which can shrink but not grow... the
creation of new wilderness in the full sense of the
word is impossible."
~ Aldo
Leopold
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We
have always had reluctance to see a tract of land which
is empty of men as anything but a void. The "waste howling
wilderness" of Deuteronomy is typical. The Oxford Dictionary
defines wilderness as wild or uncultivated land which
is occupied "only" by wild animals. Places not used
by us are "wastes." Areas not occupied by us are "desolate."
Could the desolation be in the soul of man?
~ John A. Livingston |
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What
little wilderness remains displays the patterns we
must return to, if our species and as many others
as now remain are to persist here a while. Ideally
this would call for a broad cultural rapprochment
with the wild, a long overdue armistice in civilization’s
war upon it.
~ Stephanie
Mills
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The
clearest way into the Universe is through a forest
wilderness. ~ John
Muir
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"The
battle we have fought, and are still fighting for
the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between
right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end
of it ... So we must count on watching and striving
for these trees, and should always be glad to find
anything so surely good and noble to strive for."
~ John
Muir
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"I
hope the United States of America is not so rich that
she can afford to let these wildernesses pass by,
or so poor she cannot afford to keep them." ~ Margaret
Murie
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"To
secure our environmental legacy for future generations,
we must find ways to reconcile humanity more satisfactorily
with the natural systems upon which all human life and
civilizations depend. We must recognize that the natural
systems of which we are part have an intrinsic worth
transcending narrow utilitarian values. They must be
preserved for their own sake. No philosopher or religious
thinker has been more sensitive to this intimate relationship
between humanity and nature than St. Francis of Assisi.
The powerful contemporary environmental tradition of
preservation, of reverence for wilderness and protection
for all living things - the ideal that sees, as John
Muir said, ‘in God’s wildness... the hope of the world’
- virtually began with St. Francis."
-- William K. Reilly, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency |
"…short-sighted
men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted,
rob our country of half its charm by their reckless
extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things..."
-- Theodore
Roosevelt |
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By
means of trees, wildlife could be conserved, pollution
decreased and the beauty of our landscapes enhanced.
This is the way, or at least one of the ways, to spiritual,
moral, and cultural regeneration.
~ E.F.
Schumacher
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Something
will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let
the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit
the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books
and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining
members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction;
if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last
clean streams and push our paved roads through the last
of the silence, so that never again will Americans be
free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts,
the stinks of human and automotive waste.
~Wallace Stegner |
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"Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife
are in fact plans to protect man."
~ Stewart
Udall
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"If
you know wilderness in the way that you know love,
you would be unwilling to let it go.... This is the
story of our past and it will be the story of our
future."
~ Terry
Tempest Williams
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