93 quotes
He recalled Dr. Sarvis' favorite apothegm: When the situation is hopeless, there's nothing to worry about.
The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)
We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may not ever need to go there.
Desert Solitaire (1968)
Only the government – and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws.
Abbey's Road (1979)
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.
Desert Solitaire (1968)
My loyalties will not be bound by national borders, or confined in time by one nation's history, or limited in the spiritual dimension by one language and culture. I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my intimations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time.
Orthodoxy is a relaxation of the mind accompanied by a stiffening of the heart.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
God is a sound people make when they're too tired to think anymore.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
Of course I litter the public highway. Every chance I get. After all, it's not the beer cans that are ugly; it's the highway that is ugly.
The Journey Home (1977)
For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!
“Somewhere in the depths of solitude, beyond wilderness and freedom, lay the trap of madness.”
The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)
When the situation is hopeless, there's nothing to worry about.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
In a nation of sheep, one brave man forms a majority.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
All living things on earth are kindred.
Desert Solitaire (1968)
I am not an atheist but an earthiest.
Desert Solitaire (1968)
Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.
Desert Solitaire (1968)
If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a Juniper tree or the wings of a vulture-that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
The industrial way of life leads to the industrial way of death. From Shiloh to Dachau, from Antietam to Stalingrad, from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Afghanistan, the great specialty of industry and technology has been the mass production of human corpses.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
Hierarchical institutions are like giant bulldozers — obedient to the whim of any fool who takes the controls.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)