Quotes About Wilderness

The breaking waves dashed highOn a stern and rock-bound coast,And the woods, against a stormy sky,Their giant branches tossed.

In the darkness I thought of Fyodorovich, deep in the Kolyma taiga. It was the eleventh of October, and already, I imagined, the first light snows had dusted the area around Sunny Lake. I pictured the old man sitting alone in the sun by the lakeshore, smoking a Prima and gazing skyward as the last of the whooper swans flew south, squawking and trumpeting as they went.

O world, world when I was younger I thought there was some order governing you and your deeds. But now you seem to be a labyrinth of errors, a frightful desert, a den of wild beasts, a game in which men move in circles…a stony field, a meadow full of serpents, a flowering but barren orchard, a spring of cares, a river of tears, a sea of suffering, a vain hope.

People were animals, and animals were nothing but teeth. You bit first, and you bit often. That was the only way to survive.

Besides, woods made sense. Woods were home.

Bear, I need your eyes. I need your nose. I need your night-wits and forest-wisdom.

It was such a simple thing, but it made Bear feel less trapped. This was his cool, green territory, a domain of damp scents and mysteries. Every time, Makepeace felt her eyes sharpen , until she could see in the dim light as clearly as full day. Today she dug the turf with her fingers, rubbed against a tree and snuffed at the dandelion clocks, breaking them with her nose. She was a little too slow to stop Bear licking a fat beetle off her wrist and eating it.

To the Son of God prayer was more important than the assembling of great throngs . . . He often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed [Luke 5:15–16].

Mammoth, Mammoth! mighty old Mammoth! Strike with your hatchet and cut a good slice; The bones you will find, and the hide of the mammoth, Packed in stiff cakes of Siberian ice.

The Bloody Bozeman, Dorothy Johnson

The land created me. I'm wild and lonesome. Even as I travel the cities, I'm more at home in the vacant lots.

The trees in Siberia are miles apart, that is why the dogs are so fast.

Bonnie Jo Campbell

There is language going on out there- the language of the wild. Roars, snorts, trumpets, squeals, whoops, and chirps all have meaning derived over eons of expression... We have yet to become fluent in the language -and music- of the wild.

Wilderness gave us knowledge. Wilderness made us human. We came from here. Perhaps that is why so many of us feel a strong bond to this land called Serengeti; it is the land of our youth.

As you have forgotten, so one day might you remember how to be wild and bewildered, to be wilder and be wilderness?

No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.

Where wilderness can still be found, the ancientness of the land and the nobility of man's struggle emerge. Wilderness is vastly different from the clutter and clatter of much of our civilized world. In wilderness one experiences exhilaration and joy. In freedom and simplicity, in its vitality and immense variety, happiness may not only be pursued; it is ofttimes found.

when it rains in the mountains, stay out of the river.

Wild places are reminders that the world doesn't revolve around us. It doesn't care about our little successes or smashing failures. The tides ebb and flow and the seasons change regardless of how we live or die.

Sometimes I wonder what I would be like if left to revert to nature—with

The wild mustard in Southern California is like that spoken of in the New Testament. . . . Its gold is as distinct a value to the eye as the nugget gold is in the pocket.

When one thinks in the wilderness, alone, . . . many things become clear. I have been learning, all these years in the wilderness, as if I had had a teacher.

The pieces I've written for 'Outside' magazine are definitely my best work, and they're virtually all about the outdoors.