John Muir - Wallace Stegner - John Bunyan - Nelson Algren - Jack London - Wendell Berry - William Shakespeare - Henry David Thoreau - Isadora Duncan - Oscar Wilde - John Keats - Edward Abbey - Havelock Ellis - Jim Fowler - Terry Tempest Williams - In Search of … TV - Numbers 26:65 - Deuteronomy 8:2&3 - Deuteronomy 9:7&8 - Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 7:1 - Ade Adepitan TV - Exterminate All the Brutes TV - Deliverance 1972 - Simon Reeve TV -
In God’s wildness lies the hope of the world – the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware. John Muir
Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter. John Muir
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. John Muir
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity. John Muir
There is a love of wild nature in everybody, an ancient mother-love showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties. John Muir
Nothing truly wild is unclean. John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world. John Muir
The Utah deserts and plateaus and canyons are not a country of big returns, but a country of spiritual healing, incomparable for contemplation, meditation, solitude, quiet, awe, peace of mind and body. We were born of wilderness, and we respond to it more than we sometimes realize. We depend upon it increasingly for relief from the termite life we have created. Factories, power plants, resorts, we can make anywhere. Wilderness, once we have given it up, is beyond our reconstruction. Wallace Stegner, Wilderness at the Edge, 1990
As I walked through the wilderness of this world. John Bunyan, The Pilgrims’ Progress
A walk on the wild side. Nelson Algren, novel 1956
The call of the wild. Jack London, novel 1903
I come into the peace of wild things. Wendell Berry, 1934
Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice –
Parts that become thee happily enough,
And in such eyes as ours appear not faults;
But where thou art not known, why, there they show
Something too liberal. Pray thee, take pain
To allay with some cold drops of modesty
Thy skipping spirit. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice II ii 173-179, Bassiano to Graziano
We need the tonic of wildness ... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you. Isadora Duncan
In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes
With kisses four. John Keats
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit. Edward Abbey
The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders. Edward Abbey
The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a Wilderness. Havelock Ellis
The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans. Our challenge for the future is that we realize we are very much a part of the earth’s ecosystem, and we must learn to respect and live according to the basic biological laws of nature. Jim Fowler
To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from. Terry Tempest Williams
Ancient legends tell of abandoned children reared in the wild by wolves, apes or other beasts. In 1800 a naked boy was seen running wild in the forest [France] … Abandoned as an infant he had somehow managed to survive: could such a child be civilised? In Search of s4e17 … Wild Children, 1980
Legend tell us that Romulus and Remus, the founders of ancient Rome, were suckled by a wolf mother. ibid.
In this century alone, there are at least twenty photographed cases of children who have lived with animals in their social structure. ibid.
For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. Numbers 26:65
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Deuteronomy 8:2&3
Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord.
Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you. Deuteronomy 9:7&8
And now I would that ye might know, that after my father, Lehi, had made an end of prophesying concerning his seed, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto him again, saying that it was not meet for him, Lehi, that he should take his family into the wilderness alone; but that his sons should take daughters to wife, that they might raise up seed unto the Lord in the land of promise. Book of Mormon I Nephi 7:1
Tanzania: one of Africa’s great wildernesses … Home to some of Africa’s most breathtaking wildlife. Africa with Ade Adepitan III, BBC 2019
The Myth of Pristine Wilderness: a land with no people does not exist. The idea that America was virgin land, a wilderness inhabited by non-people called savages, is a myth. Only through killing and displacement does it become uninhabited. Before the arrival of the British, north America was a continent of villages, of nations, of confederations of nations. Exterminate All the Brutes IV: The Bright, Sky Documentaries 2021
You want to talk about the vanishing wilderness? … They’re drowning the river. They’re drowning the river, man. Just about the last wild untamed unpolluted un-fucked-up river in the South. Deliverance 1972 starring Jon Voight & Burt Reynolds & Ned Beatty & Ronny Cox & Ed Ramey & Billy Redden & Bill McKinney & Herbert Cowboy Coward & James Dickey & Macon McCalman et al, director John Boorman, opening commentary
I’m going in search of the vast remote areas where nature still has the upper hand: the last great wildernesses. Wilderness with Simon Reeve I, BBC 2024
I’m travelling through the Congo rain forest. Across central Africa hundreds of rivers feed this vast green wilderness. And trees, billions of beautiful trees, stretching further than the mind can imagine. This is the second largest rain forest in the world. ibid.
Baka: They hunt, gather, craft and build … In Baka communities everything is shared among the families. ibid.
I’m in Argentina travelling through Patagonia, a region so vast it covers the lower third of the continent of South America. It’s a land of myth and mystery, grasslands and forests surrounding mountains and ice. Wilderness with Simon Reeve II
This is the south Patagonia ice field. Oh my goodness. ibid.
It is spectacular here. It is so vast though. ibid.
This is the remote south-west corner of the Pacific Ocean. A vast expanse of tropical sea, dotted with dozens of jungle-clad islands. It is known as the Coral Triangle. Wilderness with Simon Reeve III
I’m travelling through the Kalahari desert, a huge area of wilderness that stretches across southern Africa. It’s one of the wildest places on Earth. Wilderness with Simon Reeve IV
Despite the harsh terrain, the Kalahari is bursting with life … The Kalahari is a semi-desert. ibid.