There is just one hope for repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer every inch on the whole earth. That hope is the organization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom and preservation of the wilderness.
—Bob Marshall
Topics: Wilderness
As society becomes more and more mechanized, it will be more and more difficult for many people to stand the nervous strain, the high pressure, and the drabness of their lives. To escape these abominations, constantly growing numbers will seek the primitive for the fines features of life.
—Bob Marshall
Topics: Wilderness
Although huge sums of money are involved in any basis of calculation, the most important values of forest recreation are not susceptible of measurement in monetary terms. They are concerned with such intangible considerations as inspiration, aesthetic enjoyment, and a gain in understanding.
—Bob Marshall
Topics: Wilderness
Many of our greatest American thinkers, men of the caliber of Thomas Jefferson, Henry Thoreau, Mark Twain, William James, and John Muir, have found the forest and effective stimulus to original thought.
—Bob Marshall
Topics: Wilderness
For me and for thousands with similar inclinations, the most important passion of life is the overpowering desire to escape periodically from the clutches of a mechanistic civilization. To us the enjoyment of solitude, complete independence, and the beauty of undefined panoramas is absolutely essential to happiness.
—Bob Marshall
Topics: Wilderness
Finally, there are those whose chief purpose in visiting the forests is simply an escape from civilization. These people want to rest from the endless chain of mechanization and artificiality which bounds their lives. In the forest they temporarily abandon a routine to which they cannot become wholly reconciled, and return to that nature in which hundreds of generations of their ancestors were reared.
—Bob Marshall
Topics: Wilderness
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Rachel Carson American Biologist
- E. O. Wilson American Sociobiologist
- Theodore Roosevelt American Head of State
- Madeleine Albright Czech-born American Diplomat
- Aldo Leopold American Conservationist
- Erich Fromm German Social Philosopher
- Stephen Jay Gould American Paleontologist
- Murray Bookchin American Political Thinker
- Langston Hughes American Poet, Writer
- Muriel Rukeyser American Poet
Leave a Reply