We need wilderness because we ...

We need wilderness because we are wild animals. Everyone needs a place where he can go to go crazy in peace. For the terror, freedom, and delirium. Because we need brutality and raw adventure, because men and women first learned to love in, under, and all around trees, because we need for every pair of feet and legs about ten leagues of naked nature, crags to leap from, mountains to measure by, deserts to finally die in when the heart fails.
We need wilderness because we are wild animals. Everyone needs a place where he can go to go crazy in peace. For the terror, freedom, and delirium. Because we need brutality and raw adventure, because men and women first learned to love in, under, and all around trees, because we need for every pair of feet and legs about ten leagues of naked nature, crags to leap from, mountains to measure by, deserts to finally die in when the heart fails.
 Edward Abbey

Quotes from the same author

The real work of men was hunting meat. The invention of agriculture was a giant step in the wrong direction, leading to serfdom, cities, and empire. From a race of hunters, artists, warriors, and tamers of horses, we degraded ourselves to what we are now: clerks, functionaries, laborers, entertainers, processors of information.
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 Edward Abbey
Men love their ideas more than their lives. And the more preposterous the idea, the more eager they are to die for it. And to kill for it.
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 Edward Abbey
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
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 Edward Abbey
A mother's sorrow is more true, honorable, and beautiful than the detachment of the sage.
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 Edward Abbey
Motherhood is an essential, difficult, and full-time job. Women who do not wish to be mothers should not have babies.
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 Edward Abbey