The city man, in his neon-and-mazda glare, knows nothing of nature's midnight. His electric lamps surround him with synthetic sunshine. They push back the dark. They defend him from the realities of the age-old night. Edwin Way Teale More Quotes by Edwin Way Teale More Quotes From Edwin Way Teale Our minds, as well as our bodies, have need of the out-of-doors. Our spirits, too, need simple things, elemental things, the sun and the wind and the rain, moonlight and starlight, sunrise and mist and mossy forest trails, the perfumes of dawn and the smell of fresh-turned earth and the ancient music of wind among the trees. Edwin Way Teale nature simple rain Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals 'love' them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more. Edwin Way Teale love-life animal baby Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. Edwin Way Teale greed simple life It is morally as bad not to care whether anything is true or not. Edwin Way Teale care All things seem possible in May. Edwin Way Teale seems may spring For the mind disturbed, the still beauty of dawn is nature's finest balm. Edwin Way Teale nature dawn mind Time and space - time to be alone, space to move about - these may well become the great scarcities of tomorrow. Edwin Way Teale scarcity space moving For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. Edwin Way Teale autumn time fall The world's favorite season is the spring. Edwin Way Teale may spring world If I were to choose the sights, the sounds, the fragrances I most would want to see and hear and smell--among all the delights of the open world--on a final day on earth, I think I would choose these: the clear, ethereal song of a white-throated sparrow singing at dawn; the smell of pine trees in the heat of the noon; the lonely calling of Canada geese; the sight of a dragon-fly glinting in the sunshine; the voice of a hermit thrush far in a darkening woods at evening; and--most spiritual and moving of sights--the white cathedral of a cumulus cloud floating serenely in the blue of the sky. Edwin Way Teale lonely spiritual song If man can take care of man, nature can take care of the rest. Edwin Way Teale take-care care men The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web. Edwin Way Teale nature beauty funny Nature is shy and noncommittal in a crowd. To learn her secrets, visit her alone or with a single friend, at most. Everything evades you, everything hides, even your thoughts escape you, when you walk in a crowd. Edwin Way Teale crowds shy secret The seasons, like greater tides, ebb and flow across the continents. Spring advances up the United States at the average rate of about fifteen miles a day. It ascends mountainsides at the rate of about a hundred feet a day. It sweeps ahead like a flood of water, racing down the long valleys, creeping up hillsides in a rising tide. Most of us, like the man who lives on the bank of a river and watches the stream flow by, see only one phase of the movement of spring. Each year the season advances toward us out of the south, sweeps around us, goes flooding away to the north. Edwin Way Teale spring average men For observing nature, the best pace is a snail's pace. Edwin Way Teale trekking pace snail To those whom the tree, the birds, the wildflowers represent only "locked-up dollars" have never known or really seen these things. Edwin Way Teale dollars tree bird The long fight to save wild beauty represents democracy at its best. It requires citizens to practice the hardest of virtues--self-restraint. Why cannot I take as many trout as I want from a stream? Why cannot I bring home from the woods a rare wildflower? Because if I do, everybody in this democracy should be able to do the same. My act will be multiplied endlessly. To provide protection for wildlife and wild beauty, everyone has to deny himself proportionately. Special privilege and conservation are ever at odds. Edwin Way Teale fighting odds home To the lost man, to the pioneer penetrating a new country, to the naturalist who wishes to see the wild land at its wildest, the advice is always the same - follow a river. The river is the original forest highway. It is nature's own Wilderness Road. Edwin Way Teale land men country Better a thousand times even a swiftly fading, ephemeral moment of life than the epoch-long unconsciousness of the stone. Edwin Way Teale fading life long It is easier to accept the message of the stars than the message of the salt desert. The stars speak of man's insignificance in the long eternity of time; the desert speaks of his insignificance right now. Edwin Way Teale stars men long
