Quotes from Terry Tempest Williams

I was not born here by my consciousness towards a land ethic was

We are bathed in light, endless light, sometimes volatile, ever changing. We watch weather as one watches fire.

Today majesty is the length from where I stand to the summit of the mountain we are climbing. This mountain has majesty and hold its own authority above all others.

This is what we can promise the future: a legacy of care. That we will be good stewards and not take too much or give back too little, that we will recognize wild nature for what it is, in all its magnificent and complex history - an unfathomable wealth that should be consciously saved, not ruthlessly spent. Privilege is what we inherit by our status as Homo sapiens living on this planet.

I would like to hear the words public lands spoken in every election debate, with candidates holding both government and corporations accountable in their oversight and use. The fact of more than three hundred million visits to our national parks last year tells me I am not alone.

Without manners, violence enters the room. Without the decency of imagination, narcissism leads.

Perhaps it is not so much what we learn that matters in these moments of awe and wonder, but what we feel in relationship to a world beyond ourselves, even beyond our own species.

Our rivers are shrinking. Our lands are blowing away. And our lawmakers from our president to our legislators, both federal and state, are in denial of the one hard fact: We must change our lives, our politics, our beliefs, our actions, if we are going to survive.

Each voice is distinct and has something to say. Each voice deserves to be heard. But it requires the act of listening.

She loved the classics and believed in reading out loud.

Our fate like the fate of all species, is determined by chance, by circumstance, and by grace.

To be numb to the world is another form of suicide.

Desert strategies are useful: In times of drought, pull your resources inward; when water is scarce, find moisture in seeds; to stay strong and supple, send a taproot down deep; run when required, hide when necessary; when hot go underground; do not fear darkness, it's where one comes alive.

True eloquence has an edge, sharp and clean.

Perhaps this is what our national parks hold for us: stories, of who we have been and who we might become- a reminder that as human beings our histories harbor both darkness and light. To live in the United States of America and tell only one story, from one point of view, diminishes us all.

Artifacts are alive. Each has a voice. They remind us what it means to be human - that it is our nature to survive, to create works of beauty, to be resourceful, to be attentive to the world we live in.

To acknowledge that which we cannot see, to give definition to that which we don't know, to create divine order out of chaos, is the religious dance.

We can choose to move like water rather than be molded like clay. Life spirals in and then spirals out on any given day. It does not have to be one way, one truth, one voice. Nor does love have to be all or nothing. Neither does power. What is positive and what is negative is not absolute.

To see the yellow fritillaries burst forth after the deep snows of winter and know that the bears are soon to follow is to be attentive to wild nature's seasonal fugue of infinite composition and succession. The great gray owl sitting on a snag near Sawmill Ponds is not simply a bird but a heightened intelligence with golden eyes behind a mask of feathers.

Not everything is meant for all to hear. Who can judge the intention of another?

Hace mucho tiempo, cuando las mujeres fueron pájaros, existía el sencillo entendimiento de que cantar en la madrugada o cantar al atardecer era curar al mundo a través de la dicha. Los pájaros aún recuerdan lo que nosotras hemos olvidado, que el mundo está hecho para ser celebrado.

Without a shadow there is no depth. Without a shadow there is no substance. If we have no shadow, it means we are invisible. As long as I have a shadow, I am alive. as long as I have a shadow

I care about my brother. I care about wilderness. To care is to lament. My brother is a wilderness, unknowable.

Our species is committing suicide- that is a choice -and in the process, we are causing others pain.