1 “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”

2 “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.”

3 “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.”

4 “I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.”

5 “The mountains are calling and I must go.”

6 “As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can”.

7 “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”

8 “In every walk with Nature one receives far more than one seeks.”

9 “And into the forest I go, to lose my mind & find my soul.”

10 “On no subject are our ideas more warped and pitiable than on death. … Let children walk with nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory, for it never fights.”

11 “The world, we are told, was made especially for man — a presumption not supported by all the facts.”

12 “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”