One Of The Great Dreams Of Man

One Must Live In The Middle Of Contradiction, Because If All Contradiction Were Eliminated At Once Life Would Collapse.

What Does It Mean To Grow Rich? Is It To Have Red-blooded Adventures And To Make A ‘fortune,’ Which Is What Brought The Whalers And Other Entrepreneurs North? Or Is It, Rather, To Have A Good Family Life And To Be Imbued With A Far-reaching And Intimate Knowledge Of One’s Homeland, Which Is What The Tununirmiut Told The Whalers At Pond’s Bay Wealth Was? Is It To Retain A Capacity For Awe And Astonishment In Our Lives, To Continue To Hunger After What Is Genuine And Worthy? Is It To Live At Moral Peace With The Universe?

You Can't Learn Anything From Saguaro Cactus, From Ocotillo. They Are Just Passing Through; Their Roots, Their Much Heralded Dormancy In The Dry Season, These Are Only Illusions Of Permanence. They Know Even Less Than You Do.

My Function As A Writer Is To Provide An Atmosphere In Which People Can Think Wisely About What We're Doing On This Planet.

The Land Retains An Identity Of Its Own, Still Deeper And More Subtle Than We Can Know. Our Obligation Toward It Then Becomes Simple: To Approach With An Uncalculating Mind, With An Attitude Of Regard...be Alert For Its Openings, For That Moment When Something Sacred Reveals Itself Within The Mundane, And You Know The Land Knows You Are There.