. . . perhaps our grandsons, having never seen a wild river, will never miss the chance to set a canoe in singing waters . . . glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in.

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.

Land is not merely soil, it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants and animals.

Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left.

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?

There can be no doubt that a society rooted in the soil is more stable than one rooted in pavements.

There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.

The first law of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts

To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.

I learned early and at that kitchen table that there are ways of avoiding, without guilt, the commitments of love.

The difficulty does not lie in finding new ideas, but in escaping the long outdated belief in old ones.

Living in New York after 14 years, I'm such an outdoors kind of person. I love gardening and building things. I like restoring old furniture.

Fourth Law of Thermodynamics: If the probability of success is not almost one, then it is damn near zero.

I'm a big football fan, but I have to tell you if I had a son, I'd have to think long and hard before I let him play football.

Vatican II declares the Church... as necessary for salvation.

My work about corruption is to get people to see it less as a moral issue (right/wrong) and more as an economic issue (economies of influence and their effect).

However hard we try to bring in the new; it comes into being only in the midst of clumsy deals.

I grew up on movie sets, getting to see storytelling happen up close.