Wilderness Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old wilderness quotes, wilderness sayings, and wilderness proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Wilderness areas are first of all a series of sanctuaries for the primitive arts of wilderness travel, especially canoeing and packing. Aldo Leopold
Wilderness has been characterized as barren and unproductive; little can be grown in its sand and rock. But the crops of wilderness have always been its spiritual values silence and solitude, a sense of awe and gratitude able to be harvested by any traveler who visits. David Douglas
The word ‘wilderness' occurs approximately three hundred times in the Bible, and all its meanings are derogatory. Rene Dubos
Wilderness complements and completes civilization. I might say that the existence of wilderness is also a compliment to civilization. Any society that feels itself too poor to afford the preservation of wilderness is not worthy of the name of civilization. Edward Abbey
In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Ralph Waldo Emerson
True wilderness is where you keep it, and real wilderness experience cannot be a sedentary one; you have to seek it out not seated, but afoot. David Brower
Wilderness begins in the human mind. Edward Abbey
Wilderness begins where the road ends; and if the roads never end, there never will be any wilderness. Frank Church
The wilderness and the idea of wilderness is one of the permanent homes of the human spirit. Joseph Wood Krutch
Wilderness designations should not be the result of a quid pro quo. They should rise or fall on their own merits. Nick Rahall
There is no wilderness like a life without friends. Baltasar Gracian
Wilderness is not so much a place, but a feeling about one. Roderick Nash
Wilderness is not defined by the absence of certain activities, but rather by the presence of certain unique and invaluable characteristics. Nick Rahall
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. John Muir
The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness. John Muir
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. John Muir
If you know wilderness in the way that you know love, you would be unwilling to let it go. This is the story of our past and it will be the story of our future. Terry Tempest Williams
Keep close to nature's heart and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. John Muir
The wilderness that has come to us out of the eternity of the past, we have the boldness to project into the eternity of the future. Howard Zahniser
Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact called civilization. Wilderness was never a homogenous raw material. It was very diverse. The differences in the product are known as cultures. The rich diversity of the world's cultures reflects a corresponding diversity. In the wilds that gave them birth. Aldo Lepold
Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Thornton Wilder
I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson
We need to discover a common middle ground in which all of these things, from the city to the wilderness, can somehow be encompassed in the word “home.” William Cronon
I have not tired of the wilderness; rather I enjoy its beauty and the vagrant life I lead, more keenly all the time. I prefer the saddle to the street car and the star sprinkled sky to a roof, the obscure and difficult trail, leading into the unknown, to any paved highway, and the deep peace of the wild to the discontent bred by cities. Everett Ruess
In the wilderness man learns to have faith in his Creator. Finis Mitchell
If we lose wilderness, we lose forever the knowledge of what the world was. Harvey Broome
Wilderness is a resource which can shrink but not grow. Aldo Leopold
The wilderness does not make you forget your normal life so much as it removes the distractions for proper remembering. Jim Harrison
To me, a wilderness is where the flow of wildness is essentially uninterrupted by technology; without wilderness the world is a cage. David R. Brower
The swift metamorphosis and the onward march of civilization, sweeping ever westward and transforming and taming our wilderness, fills us with a strange regret, and we rejoice that parts of that wilderness will yet remain to us unchanged. William S. Bracket

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