It is part of wisdom never to revisit a wilderness, for the more golden the lily, the more certain that someone has gilded it.

Man always kills the thing he loves, and so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?

To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.

I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness.

All conservation of wildness is self-defeating, for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish.

...it is disquieting to feel that the conversion into a National Forest or Park always means the esthetic death of a piece of wild country.