National Parks Quotes

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  In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

  John Muir

  Nature, Adventure, Garden

  John Muir (2015). “STEEP TRAILS: California - Utah - Nevada - Washington - Oregon - The Grand Canyon: Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Essays and Wilderness Studies from the author of The Yosemite, Our National Parks, A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf & Picturesque California”, p.67, e-artnow

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• National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.

  Wallace Stegner

  Ideas, Democratic, Worst

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• The establishment of the National Park Service is justified by considerations of good administration, of the value of natural beauty as a National asset, and of the effectiveness of outdoor life and recreation in the production of good citizenship.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Effectiveness, Administration, Citizenship

  Theodore Roosevelt (2010). “The Green Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt in Appreciation of Wilderness, Wildlife, and Wild Places”, p.300, Cambria Press

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• One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Nature

  'Troilus And Cressida' (1602) act 3, sc. 3, l. 171

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• Within National Parks is room--glorious room--room in which to find ourselves, in which to think and hope, to dream and plan, to rest and resolve.

  Enos Mills

  Dream, Hope, Thinking

  Enos A. Mills (2013). “Your National Parks With Detailed Information for Tourists”, p.151, Library of Alexandria

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• There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and the wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbal of the great human principle.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Country, Ideas, People

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1938). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1934, Volume 3”, p.359, Best Books on

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  Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

  John Muir

  Life, Strength, Beauty

  John Muir (1997). “Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, the Mountains of California, Stickeen, Selected Essays”, p.814, Library of America

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• National parks and reserves are an integral aspect of intelligent use of natural resources. It is the course of wisdom to set aside an ample portion of our natural resources as national parks and reserves, thus ensuring that future generations may know the majesty of the earth as we know it today.

  John F. Kennedy

  Intelligent, Generations, Use

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  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.

  John Muir

  Travel, Home, Tired

  "Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, the Mountains of California, Stickeen, Selected Essays".

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• The national park is the best idea America ever had.

  James Bryce

  Nature, Ideas, America

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• Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.

  George Carlin

  Fun, Sleep, Years

  George Carlin (1998). “Brain Droppings”, Hyperion

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• The mountains are calling and I must go.

  John Muir

  Nature, Climbing, Hiking

  John Muir, Terry Gifford (1996). “John Muir: His Life and Letters and Other Writings”, p.190, The Mountaineers Books

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• The national park idea has been nurtured by each succeeding generation of Americans. Today, across our land, the National Park System represents America at its best. Each park contributes to a deeper understanding of the history of the United States and our way of life; of the natural processes which have given form to our land, and to the enrichment of the environment in which we live.

  George B. Hartzog, Jr.

  Land, Ideas, America

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• The national parks belong to everyone. To the people. To all of us. The government keeps saying so and maybe, in this one case at least, the government is telling the truth. Hard to believe, but possible.

  Edward Abbey

  Believe, Government, People

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  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.

  John Muir

  Peace, Nature, Sunshine

  Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 1898

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• Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

  John Muir

  Inspirational, Life, Nature

  Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 1898

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• Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

  John Muir

  Nature, Heart, I Hate You

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• If the national park is, as Lord Bryce suggested, the best idea America has ever had, wilderness preservation is the highest refinement of that idea.

  Wallace Stegner

  Ideas, America, Wilderness

  Wallace Earle Stegner (1995). “Where the bluebird sings to the lemonade springs: living and writing in the West”, Random House Value Pub

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

  John Muir

  Nature, Adventure, Garden

  John Muir, Edwin Way Teale, Henry Bugbee Kane (2001). “The Wilderness World of John Muir”, p.312, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Wilderness, like the national park system, was an American idea.

  Stewart Udall

  Ideas, Parks, Wilderness

  "IDEAS & TRENDS; A Rising American Impulse To Leave the Land Alone" by Philip Shabecoff, www.nytimes.com. June 11, 1989.

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• That is all the National Parks are about. Use, but do no harm.

  Wallace Stegner

  Use, Parks, Harm

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• The National Park Service today exemplifies one of the highest traditions of public service.

  Stewart Udall

  Today, Tradition, Public Service

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• The scenic ideals that surround even our national parks are carriers of a nostalgia for heavenly bliss and eternal calmness.

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, Nostalgia, Bliss

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.155, Univ of California Press

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• We are facing an enormous crisis in Africa right now in terms of illegal wildlife trafficking, which is decimating animal populations, destroying local economies, and funding armed insurgencies and terrorist syndicates. If we do not find solutions to this crisis now, there will be little habitat left beyond sparse areas of national parks that will serve as glorified zoos to small pockets of remaining animals.

  David Jeremiah Barron

  Zoos, Animal, Habitat

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• The same people in the Congress who are busy kicking holes in the social safety net are also those who would sell off the nation's forests for a song, give away its national parks, and trash its wilderness preserves; there is a connection between the two impulses.

  Paul Gruchow

  Song, Two, People

  Paul Gruchow (1997). “Boundary Waters: The Grace of the Wild”

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