--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I wouldn't live in a colony like that…" description: "\"“I wouldn't live in a colony like that, myself, for a thousand dollars an hour. I wouldn't want it next door. I'm not too happy it's within ten miles. ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6fe/wallace-stegner-1352_anarchy_i-wouldn-t-live-in-a-colony-like-that-my_3053678.png" --- # I wouldn't live in a colony like that, myself, for a… ![“I wouldn't live in a colony like that, myself, for a thousand dollars an hour. I wouldn't want it next door. I'm not too happy it's within ten miles. Why? Because their soft-headedness irritates me. Because their beautiful thinking ignores both history and human nature. Because they'd spoil my…” quote by Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6fe/wallace-stegner-1352_anarchy_i-wouldn-t-live-in-a-colony-like-that-my_3053678.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6fe/wallace-stegner-1352_anarchy_i-wouldn-t-live-in-a-colony-like-that-my_3053678.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6fe/wallace-stegner-1352_anarchy_i-wouldn-t-live-in-a-colony-like-that-my_3053678.png) > ““I wouldn't live in a colony like that, myself, for a thousand dollars an hour. I wouldn't want it next door. I'm not too happy it's within ten miles. Why? Because their soft-headedness irritates me. Because their beautiful thinking ignores both history and human nature. Because they'd spoil my thing with their thing. Because I don't think any of them is wise enough to play God and create a human society. Look. I like privacy, I don't like crowds, I don't like noise, I don't like anarchy, I don't even like discussion all that much. I prefer study, which is very different from meditation-not better, different. I don't like children who are part of the wild life. So are polecats and rats and other sorts of hostile and untrained vermin. I want to make a distinction between civilization and the wild life. I want a society that will protect the wild life without confusing itself with it.”” [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The speaker rejects a society he deems intrusive and irrational, preferring a private, orderly life that respects nature without merging with it. **In simple terms:** He wants privacy and order, not chaos or noisy crowds. Key Takeaway Seek environments that align with personal values. Themes privacy order nature society individualism Mood reflective critical contemplative Type philosophical social commentary environmental. When to use this quote - urban living - communal housing - public policy - environmental conservation - personal relationships Key Concepts civilization vs. wild human nature social contract environmental ethics Questions to Reflect On - How do you balance personal privacy with societal obligations? - What role should humans play in shaping nature? A Different Perspective His disdain may overlook benefits of community and shared responsibility. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Anarchy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchy/) [Civilization](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/civilization/) [Colonization](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/colonization/) [Commune](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/commune/) [History](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/history/) [Human nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-nature/) [Idealism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/idealism/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) [Privacy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/privacy/) [Society](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/society/) [Wild life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wild-life/) ## Related quotes > [“It's idealistic, it's for love and gentleness, it's close to nature, it hurts nobody, it's voluntary. I can't see anything wrong with any of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/it-s-idealistic-it-s-for-love-and-gentleness-it-s-close-to-nature-it/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [Sometimes I feel people think I live on a commune but I don't. We are all solar, though. There are no power lines. It's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/woody-harrelson/sometimes-i-feel-people-think-i-live-on-a-commune-but-i-don-t-we-are/) [Woody Harrelson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/woody-harrelson/) > [Then, all of a sudden, he stopped and nobody heard from him or got a response to orders. At this point Rod Walker looked…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fred-davis/then-all-of-a-sudden-he-stopped-and-nobody-heard-from-him-or-got-a/) Fred Davis > [As for the system of the Commune, which makes it impossible for a man to rise or fall, it is merely the old caste…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-winwood-reade/as-for-the-system-of-the-commune-which-makes-it-impossible-for-a-man/) [William Winwood Reade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-winwood-reade/) > [Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maimonides/commune-with-your-own-heart-upon-your-bed-and-be-still/) [Maimonides](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maimonides/) > [I'd like to start some form of city-type commune.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/murray-head/i-d-like-to-start-some-form-of-city-type-commune/) [Murray Head](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/murray-head/) > [Never a day passes but that I do myself the honor to commune with some of nature's varied forms.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-washington-carver/never-a-day-passes-but-that-i-do-myself-the-honor-to-commune-with/) [George Washington Carver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-washington-carver/) > [A commune is where people join together to share their lack of wealth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-stallman/a-commune-is-where-people-join-together-to-share-their-lack-of-wealth/) [Richard Stallman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-stallman/) > [The commune movement is part of a reawakening of belief in the possibilities for utopia that existed in the nineteenth century and exist again…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosabeth-moss-kanter/the-commune-movement-is-part-of-a-reawakening-of-belief-in-the/) [Rosabeth Moss Kanter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosabeth-moss-kanter/) > [Commune with your own heart on your bed and be still.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/commune-with-your-own-heart-on-your-bed-and-be-still/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Lisbon, to me, is the Lisbon of Pessoa. Just like London is Woolf’s, or rather, Mrs. Dalloway’s. Barcelona is Gaudí's and Rome is da…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kamand-kojouri/lisbon-to-me-is-the-lisbon-of-pessoa-just-like-london-is-woolf-s-or/) [Kamand Kojouri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kamand-kojouri/) > [“Here too, as in the Commune almost a century earlier, the struggle was articulated around the hope that 'the antithesis between the everyday and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-mcdonough/here-too-as-in-the-commune-almost-a-century-earlier-the-struggle-was/) [Tom McDonough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-mcdonough/) > [I'm going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tracy-kidder/i-m-going-to-a-commune-in-vermont-and-will-deal-with-no-unit-of-time/) [Tracy Kidder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tracy-kidder/) > [If at all possible, commune with nature daily.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/if-at-all-possible-commune-with-nature-daily/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I grew up in a commune where no one considered me female, particularly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kristin-hersh/i-grew-up-in-a-commune-where-no-one-considered-me-female-particularly/) [Kristin Hersh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kristin-hersh/) ## More by Wallace Stegner > [“I have to blame myself for not finding any way of reaching him, but I can't feel that either Ruth or I had anything…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/i-have-to-blame-myself-for-not-finding-any-way-of-reaching-him-but-i/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [No life goes past so swiftly as an eventless one, no clock spins like a clock whose days are all alike.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/no-life-goes-past-so-swiftly-as-an-eventless-one-no-clock-spins-like/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“within yourself, you became a grave for her as you were a grave for Chet, and you carried your dead unquietly within you. —”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/within-yourself-you-became-a-grave-for-her-as-you-were-a-grave-for/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [Towns are like people. Old ones often have character, the new ones are interchangeable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/towns-are-like-people-old-ones-often-have-character-the-new-ones-are/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [By his very profession, a serious fiction writer is a vendor of the sensuous particulars of life, a perceiver and handler of things. His…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/by-his-very-profession-a-serious-fiction-writer-is-a-vendor-of-the/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“The creative writer is compulsively concrete . . . . His fictional house should be haunted by ideas, not inhabited by them; they should…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/the-creative-writer-is-compulsively-concrete-his-fictional-house/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [Hard writing makes easy reading.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/hard-writing-makes-easy-reading/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [You married me...but you didn't marry what you could make out of me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/you-married-me-but-you-didn-t-marry-what-you-could-make-out-of-me/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [Wisdom. . .is knowing what you have to accept.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/wisdom-is-knowing-what-you-have-to-accept/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“His mouth is full of ecology, his mind is full of fumes.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/his-mouth-is-full-of-ecology-his-mind-is-full-of-fumes/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [I gave my heart to the mountains the minute I stood beside this river with its spray in my face and watched it thunder…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/i-gave-my-heart-to-the-mountains-the-minute-i-stood-beside-this-river/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“Poetry ought to be a by-product of living, and you can't have a by-product unless you've got a product first .”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/poetry-ought-to-be-a-by-product-of-living-and-you-can-t-have-a-by/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/something-will-have-gone-out-of-us-as-a-people-if-we-ever-let-the/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“Some people, I am told, have memories like computers, nothing to do but punch the button and wait for the print-out. Mine is more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/some-people-i-am-told-have-memories-like-computers-nothing-to-do-but/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [ “\[Y\]ou were too alert to the figurative possibilities of words not to see the phrase \[angle of repose\] as descriptive of human as well… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/y-ou-were-too-alert-to-the-figurative-possibilities-of-words-not-to/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) [Explore all 251 Wallace Stegner quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) ## More Anarchy quotes > [I'm in a business where there's complete anarchy. You can't control it - you can only react to it. The control that people traditionally…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-sorrell/i-m-in-a-business-where-there-s-complete-anarchy-you-can-t-control-it/) [Martin Sorrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-sorrell/) > [The "health, education, and welfare" section of government is another boondoggle. First we manufacture indigent and superfluous people by legal monopolies in land, money…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laurance-labadie/the-health-education-and-welfare-section-of-government-is-another/) [Laurance Labadie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laurance-labadie/) > [The law is the collective organization of the individual's right to lawful defense of his life, liberty and property. When it is used for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederic-bastiat/the-law-is-the-collective-organization-of-the-individual-s-right-to/) [Frederic Bastiat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederic-bastiat/) > [So far I'm still standing on 'Sons of Anarchy' but all the rest of the people on the show have me in their crosshairs…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mitch-pileggi/so-far-i-m-still-standing-on-sons-of-anarchy-but-all-the-rest-of-the/) Mitch Pileggi > [“Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/greg-graffin/anarchy-evolution-faith-science-and-bad-religion-in-a-world-without/) [Greg Graffin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/greg-graffin/) > [Perhaps it is this theory of all work and no play that has made the Marxist such a very dull boy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herbert-read/perhaps-it-is-this-theory-of-all-work-and-no-play-that-has-made-the/) [Herbert Read](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herbert-read/) > [Anarchy is the stepping stone to absolute power.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/napoleon-bonaparte/anarchy-is-the-stepping-stone-to-absolute-power/) [Napoleon Bonaparte](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/napoleon-bonaparte/) > [In morals as in politics anarchy is not for the weak.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-mccarthy/in-morals-as-in-politics-anarchy-is-not-for-the-weak/) [Mary McCarthy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mary-mccarthy/) > [I think that if you run a big company, you've got to, four or five times a year, just say, 'Hey team, look, here's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeffrey-r-immelt/i-think-that-if-you-run-a-big-company-you-ve-got-to-four-or-five/) [Jeffrey R. Immelt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeffrey-r-immelt/) > [Where you have no religion, you are sure to have no government, for as religion disappears, anarchy takes place and fixes a compleat Hell…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-morgan/where-you-have-no-religion-you-are-sure-to-have-no-government-for-as/) [Daniel Morgan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-morgan/) > [What a comfort it is to feel that amid the chaos and anarchy which sweep the surface, God is holding fast the foundations on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/f-b-meyer/what-a-comfort-it-is-to-feel-that-amid-the-chaos-and-anarchy-which/) [F.B. Meyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/f-b-meyer/) > [“An anarchist government somehow creates an impression in the hearts of citizens that no one cares.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amit-kalantri/an-anarchist-government-somehow-creates-an-impression-in-the-hearts/) [Amit Kalantri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amit-kalantri/) > [Would you like to do something good for the future of the human race; well, start killing some of its powerful members.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-c-brown/would-you-like-to-do-something-good-for-the-future-of-the-human-race/) [William C. Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-c-brown/) > [“twenty-three years of RFRAs to produce anarchy,”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-corvino/twenty-three-years-of-rfras-to-produce-anarchy/) [John Corvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-corvino/) > [Freedom is that faculty that enlarges the usefulness of all other faculties.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/immanuel-kant/freedom-is-that-faculty-that-enlarges-the-usefulness-of-all-other/) [Immanuel Kant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/immanuel-kant/) [Browse all 795 Anarchy quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchy/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I wouldn't live in a colony like that, myself, for a thousand dollars an hour. I wouldn't want it next door. I'm not too happy it's within ten miles. Why? Because their soft-headedness irritates me. Because their beautiful thinking ignores both history and human nature. Because they'd spoil my thing with their thing. Because I don't think any of them is wise enough to play God and create a human society. Look. I like privacy, I don't like crowds, I don't like noise, I don't like anarchy, I don't even like discussion all that much. I prefer study, which is very different from meditation-not better, different. I don't like children who are part of the wild life. So are polecats and rats and other sorts of hostile and untrained vermin. I want to make a distinction between civilization and the wild life. 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