I’m sharing these quotations for people who care about the wild. And some of these quotations might help inspire other people to care more about and protect, defend, restore, and “rewild” more of our natural places and habitats, i.e., wild lands, wilderness, bodies of water, wetlands, forests (especially ancient/old-growth and mature forests), trees, parklands (and even wild and native vegetation and habitats in our own yards and gardens)—for ourselves (for our health and survival, and to maintain our senses of awe, beauty, and connectedness) and also for the sake of wildlife, the biodiversity of animal and plant species, and balanced ecosystems.
“In Wildness is the preservation of the world.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“The wild places are where we began. When they end, so do we.”
— David Brower
“Man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”
— Rachel Carson
“If we save our wild places, we will ultimately save ourselves.”
— Steve Irwin
“The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only hope.”
— Wendell Berry
“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”
— Wendell Berry
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.”
— Edward Abbey
“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
— Aldo Leopold
“Climate catastrophe and biodiversity loss are the consequences of unrestrained taking by humans.”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
“People who will not sustain trees will soon live in a world that will not sustain people.”
— Bryce Nelson
“I think that having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want.”
— Andy Warhol
“If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.”
— President Lyndon Johnson
“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders. Do not let selfish men and greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches, or its romance.”
— President Theodore Roosevelt
“The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.”
— unknown
“Old growth is not simply a marker of past glory, an elegy for all that once was. It is a promise of the future, a glimpse of the systemic soundness we will not see completed in our lifetimes but that can fire our hopes for the timelessness to come.”
— Bill McKibben
“What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from the great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.”
– (often falsely attributed to Chief Seattle; actually from a 1972 script for the movie Home)
“…we can regain balance by acknowledging that if we harm one species, one forest, one lake, this ripples through the entire complex web. Mistreatment of one species is mistreatment of all. …Making this transformation requires that humans reconnect with nature…instead of treating everything and everyone as objects for exploitation.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
“Our task must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
— Albert Einstein
You can find our other Quotations posts indexed here, and a long set of Quotations here.
MICHIGAN
The sustainability of one’s home depends as much (if not more) on its 
…is located close to your (and your family’s) jobs and schools; close to shops, parks, civic buildings, and other services and amenities your family regularly uses; and close to public transit stops—ideally within