Sigurd F. Olson Quotes

25 quotes in 545 categories

• It was Indian summer, a bluebird sort of day as we call it in the north, warm and sunny, without a breath of wind; the…
• One cannot run from a challenge without losing. To flee is signing a death warrant to dignity and character, and, having run, there is no…
• Joys come from simple and natural things: mists over meadows, sunlight on leaves, the path of the moon over water.
• Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and…
• I have discovered in a lifetime of traveling in primitive regions, a lifetime of seeing people living in the wilderness and using it, that there…
• Simplicity in all things is the secret of the wilderness and one of its most valuable lessons. It is what we leave behind that is…
• Beauty is composed of many things and never stands alone. It is part of horizons, blue in the distance, great primeval silences, knowledge of all…
• In wilderness people can find the silence and the solitude and the noncivilized surroundings that can connect them once again to their evolutionary heritage, and…
• While we are born with curiosity and wonder and our early years full of the adventure they bring, I know such inherent joys are often…
• I named this place Listening Point because only when one comes to listen, only when one is aware and still, can things be seen and…
• There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude, and peace. The…
• When a man is part of his canoe, he is part of all that canoes have ever known.
• If we can change our priorities, achieve balance and understanding in our roles as human beings in a complex world, the coming era can well…
• At times on quiet waters one does not speak aloud but only in whispers, for then all noise is sacrilege.
• Wilderness can be appreciated only by contrast, and solitude understood only when we have been without it. We cannot separate ourselves from society, comradeship, sharing…
• As long as there are young men with the light of adventure in their eyes or a touch of wilderness in their souls, rapids will…
• Awareness is becoming acquainted with environment, no matter where one happens to be. Man does not suddenly become aware or infused with wonder; it is…
• The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness, and of a freedom almost forgotten.
• Without love of the land, conservation lacks meaning or purpose, for only in a deep and inherent feeling for the land can there be dedication…
• Simplicity in all things is the secret of the wilderness and one of its most valuable lessons

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