Wilderness is a resource which can shrink but not grow the creation of new wilderness in the full sense of the world is impossible. The Act provides for the designation of wilderness areas, defines what wilderness is and provides direction for wilderness area management. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it. I would not have every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth. Our lives need the relief of where the pine flourishes and the jay still screams.
All good things are wild and free.
A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it. In wildness is the preservation of the world. Into the woods we return to reason and faith. Whoso walketh in solitude, And inhabiteth the wood, Choosing light, wave, rock, and bird, Before the money-loving herd, Into that forester shall pass, From these companions, power and grace. The richest value of wilderness lie not in the days of Daniel Boone, nor even in the present but rather in the future.