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FAMOUS QUOTATIONS Prayer of the Woods The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. - unknown Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong. – George Carlin If you’re not in New York, you’re camping out. – Thomas E. Dewey. I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?” – Ernest Hemingway If people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish. – John Muir, US naturalist, 1838—1914 There is no comparison between an overwide trail or a flattened, well-used camping site and a clear-cut forest or a strip-mined mountainside. The real threats to the wilderness come from logging, mining, overgrazing, dams, downhill ski resorts, mass tourism developments, and other large-scale projects. Who opposes these schemes? Often it is people who have learned to love wild places by walking and camping in them, by treating them softly and leaving little trace of their passing. – Chris Townsend, The Advanced Backpacker, 2001 “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain “By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.” – Charles Wadsworth If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. —Abraham Maslow, US psychologist, 1908-70 There is an intense but simple thrill in setting off in the morning on a mountain trail, knowing that everything you need is on your back. It is a confidence in having left the inessentials behind and of entering a world of natural beauty that has not been violated, where money has no value, and possessions are a dead weight. The person with the fewest possessions is the freest. Thoreau was right. –Paul Theroux, The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific, 1992 ‘I think,’ said Christopher Robin, ‘that we ought to eat all our Provisions now, so we shan’t have so much to carry.’ –A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, 1954 Even in these mercifully emancipated decades, many people still seem quite seriously alarmed at the prospect of sleeping away from officially consecrated campsites, with no more equipment than they can carry on their backs. When pressed, they babble about snakes or bears or even, by God, bandits. But the real barrier, I’m sure, is the unknown. –Colin Fletcher, The Complete Walker, 1968 Then came the gadgeteer, otherwise known as the sporting-goods dealer. He has draped the American outdoorsman with an infinity of contraptions, all offered as aids to self-reliance, hardihood, woodcraft, or marksmanship, but too often functioning as substitutes for them. Gadgets fill the pockets, they dangle from neck and belt. The overflow fills the auto-trunk and also the trailer. Each item of outdoor equipment grows lighter and often better, but the aggregate poundage becomes tonnage. –Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949 It is one of the blessings of wilderness life that it shows us how few things we need in order to be perfectly happy. –Horace Kephart, Camping and Woodcraft, 1917 I feel so independent now. I can get anywhere I want to. I have the few essentials I need, and the few other things I need or want I can derive from the land. –David Cooper, on starting his 200-mile solo trek through the Brooks Range, Brooks Range Passage, 1982 Under most conditions, the best roof for your bedroom is the sky. This commonsense arrangement saves weight, time, energy, and money. –Colin Fletcher, The Complete Walker III, 1989
It is impossible to overestimate the value of wild mountains and mountain temples as places for people to grow in, recreation grounds for soul and body. –John Muir, US naturalist, 1838—1914 The tendency nowadays to wander in wilderness is delightful to see. Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. –John Muir, Our National Parks, 1901 The thrill of tramping alone and unafraid through a wilderness of lakes, creeks, alpine meadows, and glaciers is not known to many. A civilization can be built around the machine but it is doubtful that a meaningful life can be produced by it.… When man worships at the feet of avalanche lilies or discovers the delicacies of the pasque flower or finds the faint perfume of the phlox on rocky ridges, he will come to know that the real glories are God’s creations. When he feels the wind blowing through him on a high peak or sleeps under a closely matted white bark pine in an exposed basin, he is apt to find his relationship to the universe. –William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice and avid hiker, 1898—1980 My Other Car is a Pair of Boots - bumper sticker All that glitters is not gold. All who wander are not lost. –William Shakespeare, English dramatist & poet, 1564-1616 It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. - Saint Francis of Assisi, Italian friar, 1181—1226 We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with great love. – Mother Theresa |
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