That is all the National Parks are about. Use, but do no harm.
Wallace StegnerRead
If the national park is, as Lord Bryce suggested, the best idea America has ever had, wilderness preservation is the highest refinement of that idea.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of preserving wilderness as a fundamental aspect of America's greatest idea, which is the concept of national parks.
Wallace Stegner reflects on the significance of national parks in America, suggesting that they represent a pinnacle of human achievement in understanding the value of nature. When he states that wilderness preservation is the highest refinement of this idea, he asserts that protecting natural landscapes is vital not only for their beauty but also for the fundamental values they represent in American culture.
Themes
WildernessPreservationNatureNational ParksAmerica
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared at a conservation rally to emphasize the importance of protecting national parks.
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.
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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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