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
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A narrow pond would form in the orchard, water clear as air covering grass and black leaves and fallen branches, all around it black leaves and drenched grass and fallen branches, and on it, slight as an image in an eye, sky, clouds, trees, our hovering faces and our cold hands.
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