Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Wilderness itself is not in danger of being argued away, but it requires people to actively protect it.
In plain terms
Nature does not need arguments to exist, but it needs humans to defend it.
What can you take from it?
Focus energy on action rather than debate when protecting nature.

Where it applies

  • environmental campaigns
  • community organizing
  • education

Putting it to work

  • join conservation groups
  • volunteer for land restoration
  • vote for environmental policies

Questions to consider

  • What would you defend without question?
  • How can you be a defender of nature?

Another view

Sometimes legal defense or policy change is more effective than individual defenders.

More from Edward Abbey

  1. Knowing now what we have learned, unless the need were urgent, I could no more sink the blade of an ax into the tissues of a living tree than I could drive it …

    Permalink to quote #22
  2. The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sus…

    Permalink to quote #24
  3. There are some good things to be said about walking. Not many, but some. Walking takes longer, for example, than any other known form of locomotion except craw…

    Permalink to quote #21

Related quotes

  1. If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness.

    Edward AbbeyEdward Abbey quote #51
  2. Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.

    John C. CalhounJohn C. Calhoun quote #2
  3. The protection he relied on for nearly thirty years was based on just two things. The same two things anybody uses to protect against any danger. The same way …

    Lee ChildLee Child quote #5