That is all the National Parks are about. Use, but do no harm.
Wallace StegnerRead
It is the abiding concern of thinking people to preserve what keeps men human-to save our contact with nature of which we are a part.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining our connection with nature to uphold our humanity.
Wallace Stegner highlights the vital relationship between humanity and the natural world, suggesting that thinking individuals recognize the necessity of preserving nature for the sake of human identity. This connection to nature not only enriches our lives but also reminds us of our place within the larger ecosystem, underscoring the urgency of environmental conservation.
Themes
NatureHumanityConnectionPreservationEnvironment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during environmental protection campaigns to illustrate the importance of nature.
More from Wallace Stegner
All quotes βTouch. It is touch that is the deadliest enemy of chastity, loyalty, monogamy, gentility with its codes and conventions and restraints. By touch we are betrayed and betray others ... an accidental brushing of shoulders or touching of hands ... hands laid on shoulders in a gesture of comfort that lies like a thief, that takes, not gives, that wants, not offers, that awakes, not pacifies. When one flesh is waiting, there is electricity in the merest contact.
Wallace StegnerRead
Hope was always out ahead of fact, possibility obscured the outlines of reality.
Wallace StegnerRead
Young writers should be encouraged to write, and discouraged from thinking they are writers.
Wallace StegnerRead
I was shaped by the west and have lived most of my life in it, and nothing would gratify me more than to see it in all its subregions and subcultures both prosperous and environmentally healthy, with a civilization to match its scenery.
Wallace StegnerRead
Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.
Wallace StegnerRead
Similar quotes
Aurora now, fair daughter of the dawn, Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn.
Alexander PopeRead
The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
Grass is the forgiveness of nature - her constant benediction. Forests decay, harvests perish, flowers vanish, but grass is immortal...Its tenacious fibers hold the earth in place and prevent its soluble components from washing to the wasting sea.
John James IngallsRead
It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.
John RuskinRead
Oh, how beautiful is the summer night, which is not night, but a sunless, yet unclouded, day, descending upon earth with dews and shadows and refreshing coolness! How beautiful the long mild twilight, which, like a silver clasp, unites today with yesterday!
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
Here is Menard's own intimate forest: 'Now I am traversed by bridle paths, under the seal of sun and shade...I live in great density...Shelter lures me. I slump down into the thick foliage...In the forest, I am my entire self. Everything is possible in my heart just as it is in the hiding places in ravines. Thickly wooded distance separates me from moral codes and cities.
Gaston BachelardRead