"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." — Aldo Leopold A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There
"I’m a spokesperson not only for myself and my people but for those that aren’t able to speak for themselves. And that’s the land, the water, the air, and the animals. They’re not able to speak for themselves or advocate." — Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk
"If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I bet they’d live a lot differently. When you look into infinity, you realize that there are more important things than what people do all day." — Bill Watterson Calvin and Hobbs
"We save what we love and we love what we know." — George Wendt
"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed." — Mahatma Gandhi
"The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves." — Rachel Carson
"In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy." — John C. Sawhill
"The creature at your feet dismissed as a bug or a weed is a creation in and of itself. It has a name, a million-year history, and a place in the world. Its genome adapts it to a special niche in an ecosystem. The ethical value substantiated by close examination of its biology is that the life forms around us are too old, too complex, and potentially too useful to be carelessly discarded." — Edward Wilson The Future of Life
"Public lands instruct in the value of respecting differences. We may all be endowed with a love of nature, but that passion takes many forms. Public lands must accommodate multiple uses because there are multiple publics whose wishes point in all directions. … Such differences don’t have to fester into divisions. The duck hunter and the birdwatcher may have their own ideas about the highest value of a wetland. Yet both know that without public protection, there might not be a wetland at all…. America’s public lands teach the etiquette of sharing. They instruct is in the manners of coexistence, cooperation, and consideration toward each other. … Such humility can remind us that even though we may find the culture and politics of others to be incomprehensible, their desire to find happiness in the natural world is much the same as our own." — Jason Mark Sierra Magazine, July/August 2020 Issue, "In Public Lands is the Preservation of the Republic"
"I’d had this idea that I could push myself physically through anything if I was tough and smart and rugged, and that the push would show me something about myself and my place on the river. That being able to do things alone was a sign of strength, not fear. I’d thought I could conquer the landscape and fully understand the problem of water use. But none of that is true. The tough part is connection, looking across lines and knowing when to push the lever on what you think is right." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"It’s more interesting and fun to honor the reality that no two redwoods are the same, and that if you’ve seen one redwood … you’ve seen one redwood. We are sustained by each redwood truly seen, and we evolve by understanding and being inspired by the differences between each tree, person, culture, mountain range, and creature of the earth. The Funhogs of 1968 were on the road of realizing in each present moment the truism of the iconic John Muir’s observation: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” If you’ve seen one redwood, you’re connected to them all." — Dick Dorworth Climbing Fitz Roy, 1968, "Viva los Funhogs"
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." — John Muir My First Summer in the Sierra
"I’m increasingly interested in making myself a sheet of paper, in forfeiting my privileged status as author and allowing stacked stones, mud mortar, surrounding geology, encompassing weather...to do the writing." — Leath Tonino Adventure Journal, "The Wild and the Old Places Do Not Need You"
"This is the value of this piece of wilderness—its absolutely untouched character. Not spectacular, no unique or “strange” features, but just the beautiful, wild country of a beautiful, wild free-running river, with no sign of man or his structures." — Anne LaBastille Women and Wilderness
"Should we publish a magazine at all? Since the increased numbers of backpackers are now threatening the backcountry from overuse, how then could we justify publishing a magazine which would probably encourage more backpacking? … It has not yet ben satisfactorily proved that when people do take up backpacking they ergo become more respectful of the environment." — The Editor Backpacker Magazine, Issue 1, 1973
"In many parts of experimental science unexpected discoveries are made in a workshop. The book of nature, whose pages are open to all, is read but by a few." — James D. Forbes Travels Through the Alps
"So we are left with a stark choice: allow climate disruption to change everything about our world, or change pretty much everything about our economy to avoid that fate." — Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
"All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild." — John Muir "The Scenery of California"
"Besides love and respect, this mountain needs none of what you may bring." — Unknown Seen on the kitchen chalkboard at Refugio Cuernos, Torres del Paine
