“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television.”

“Oscar Wilde said that sunsets were not valued because we could not pay for sunsets. But Oscar Wilde was wrong; we can pay for sunsets. We can pay for them by not being Oscar Wilde.”

“You may wish to capture a wild thing as you covet their unbreakable spirit, but as much as you may wish to tame a wild thing, a wild thing, who may grow to love you, will always resist and will do anything, at any cost, even if it means hurting you, to break free. Be careful when playing with a wild thing.”

“We practice wonder by resisting the temptation to hurry past things worth seeing, but it can take work to transcend our preconceived standards for what that worth might be... This is one of the blessings of the urban nature project: without the overly magnificent to stop us in our tracks, we must seek out the more subversively magnificent. Our sense of what constitutes wildness is expanded, and our sense of wonder along with it.”

“In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”

“I must see new things and investigate them. I want to taste dark water and see crackling trees and wild winds.”