"Even when touring, there are no free tickets. We need to speak up and build a collective voice and presence through community involvement. Instead of reacting to policy, it’s time to begin shaping it." — Anthony Pavkovich Backcountry Magazine, Issue 125
"The biggest challenge we face is shifting human consciousness, not saving the planet. The planet doesn’t need saving, we do." — Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
"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"
"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
"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
"Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war." — Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
"[Power, not just energy.] It seems to me that our problem has a lot less to do with the mechanics of solar power than the politics of human power." — Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
"The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders." — Edward Abbey
"There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction." — John F. Kennedy
"We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." — Albert Einstein
"We realize that every day is a gift. To become who we are and share what we do is a gift. To help one another is a gift." — Lonnie Kauk Alpinist Magazine, Issue 66, "Magic Line"
"Our brain loves to not decide things. We love to default, or revert to the mean, or do what we know." — Sara Boilen Powder Magazine, "Your Heart and Brain Are Working Against You in Avalanche Terrain"
"When we admit that we don’t know, we give ourselves permission to be vulnerable. More importantly, we recognize a starting point from which to gather information." — Dave Richards Backcountry Magazine, "A Certain Uncertainty"
"What we see often has more to do with what we have seen in the past or what we hope or expect to see than it does with what is staring us in the face." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your facts is another." — John Burroughs
"We all have a place, a city park, a mountain trail, a desert flower, a perfect beach break. Some place that brings us outside. Outside our work, outside our lives, outside ourselves. We might share them with others, but they feel like they are just for us. Most often, they are not. These places, as natural and beautiful and untouched as they seem, are larger than us. To exist, these places require effort. So understand the places you love. Learn who works to protect them, and who makes decisions on their behalf. Give your efforts to these places, and truly get outside." — Amy Morrison Stay Wild Magazine, Spring 2015, insert
"Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond." — Robin Wall Kimmerer Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
"You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!" — 10th Doctor Doctor Who, "Tooth and Claw"
"What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them." — Toni Morrison New York Times Magazine, 1994, "Chloe Wofford Talks About Toni Morrison"
"Clearly, what gets declared a crisis is an expression of power and priorities as much as hard facts. But we need not be spectators in all this: politicians aren’t the only ones with the power to declare a crisis. Mass movements of regular people can declare one too." — Naomi Kline This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
