That is all the National Parks are about. Use, but do no harm.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a desire for a prosperous and environmentally healthy Western civilization that aligns with its beautiful landscapes.
Wallace Stegner reflects on his deep connection to the West, emphasizing how his experiences and identity have been shaped by this region. He conveys a profound aspiration for all its diverse areas and cultures to thrive, not just economically but also in harmony with nature, creating a civilization that respects and matches the breathtaking scenery of the land.
Themes
WestNatureCivilizationProsperityEnvironment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about environmental conservation.
More from Wallace Stegner
All quotes →Touch. 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
Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.
Wallace StegnerRead
No place is a place until things that have happened in it are remembered in history, ballads, yarns, legends, or monuments. Fictions serve as well as facts.
Wallace StegnerRead
Similar quotes
We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
It's a perfect wave when small and the most beautiful and scary wave on Earth when it's big, as the swell from deep water hits the shallow reef ledge. A ten-foot high wave and a 30-footer break in the same depth of water.
Kelly SlaterRead
For the 99 percent of the time we've been on Earth, we were hunter and gatherers, our lives dependent on knowing the fine, small details of our world. Deep inside, we still have a longing to be reconnected with the nature that shaped our imagination, our language, our song and dance, our sense of the divine.
Janine BenyusRead
Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.
Gary SnyderRead
Not till we are completely lost, or turned round, do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of Nature.
Henry David ThoreauRead
I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.
John BurroughsRead