I'm thinking about putting together a coffee table book for my dad for Christmas.  I'm thinking I might want to include some quotes that embody or relate to the BWCA experience, including but not limited to stuff that would relate to "father/son" time spent outdoors. 

Wondering if anyone would like to share?

Here is one that I have always liked.

"In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught" Baba Dioum  Conservationist

Here are several dozen quotes that I have compiled and enjoyed over the past few years:

"Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and numbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy." - Hamlin Garland

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order."  - John Burroughs

"Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"The sportsman lives his life vicariously. For he secretly yearns to have lived before, in a simpler time. A time when his love for the land, water, fish and wildlife would be more than just part of his life. It would be his state of mind."   - Jim Slinsky

"In my deepest troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests."  - John James Audubon

"In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia." - Charles Lindbergh

"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope." - John Buchan

"I was a hunter and fisherman, and many a time I have slipped out into the woods and prairies at 4 a.m. and brought home plenty of game, or have gone in a canoe to the cove and brought back a good supply of fresh fish." - Jay Cooke

"I have laid aside business, and gone a'fishing." - Izaak Walton

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." - Aristotle

"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books." - John Lubbock

"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work." - Mark Twain

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time." - John Lubbock

"As one who has often felt this need, and who has found refreshment in wild places, I attest to the recreational value of wilderness." - George Aiken

"A few days ago I walked along the edge of the lake and was treated to the crunch and rustle of leaves with each step I made. The acoustics of this season are different and all sounds, no matter how hushed, are as crisp as autumn air." - Eric Sloane

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." - Carl Sandburg

"Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man." - Orison Swett Marden

"Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself." - George Bernard Shaw

"Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes in the middle of nowhere you find yourself." - Unknown

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."- Henry David Thoreau

"It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit." - Robert Louis Stevenson

My father was my teacher. But most importantly he was a great dad.  - Beau Bridges

"True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions." - Joseph Addison

"Live as you will wish to have lived when you are dying." - Christian Furchtegott Gellert

"There is nothing like being left alone again, to walk peacefully with oneself in the woods. To boil one's coffee and fill one's pipe, and to think idly and slowly as one does it." - Knut Hamsun

"There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclinations." - Washington Irving

"Of all the liars among mankind, the fisherman is the most trustworthy."  - William Sherwood

"I thank Heaven every summer's day of my life, that my lot was humbly cast within the hearing of romping brooks, and beneath the shadow of oaks." - Donald G. Mitchell

"When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing - just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?" - Ralph Marston

"I think it's time for me to get out, because at the moment I'm only thinking about fishing 21 hours a day, and they're the waking moments. And even when I close my eyes I'm thinking about it."  - Rex Hunt

"When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home." - Thornton Wilder

"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." - Doug Larson

"I'm a father; that's what matters most. Nothing matters more." - Gordon Brown

"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass"; "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys". - Harmon Killebrew

"We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves." - Henry Ward Beecher

"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day." - Henry David Thoreau

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit." - Edward Abbey

"The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire." - Pamela Hansford Johnson

"Anyone who has ever heard it when the land was covered with a blanket of snow and elusively lighted by shimmering moonlight, will never forget the strange, trembling wolf cry." - Unknown

"Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God."- George Washington Carver

"For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously." - George Gissing

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." - John Ruskin

"How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days." - John Burroughs

"To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug." - Helen Keller

"You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by." - James M. Barrie

"A child educated only in school is an uneducated child." - George Santayana

"Time and health are two precious assets that we don't recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted." - Denis Waitley

"Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it." - Greg Anderson

"One item on my agenda is simply planning trips, setting them as goals, something to look forward to." - Paul Parker

"Here I am, safely returned over those peaks from a journey far more beautiful and strange than anything I had hoped for or imagined - how is it that this safe return brings such regret?" - Peter Matthiessen

"The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day." - O. A. Battista

"A city that outdistances man's walking powers is a trap for man." - Arnold J. Toynbee

"Some men would rather be photographed with their fish than with their wives." - Gwen Cooper and Evelyn Haas

"It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming." - John Steinbeck

"I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and, looking round with astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains, the beauteous tracts below." - Daniel Boone

"My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it." - Clarence Budington Kelland

"At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it." - Yukio Mishima

"My restless, roaming spirit would not allow me to remain at home very long." - Buffalo Bill

"Sunsets are so beautiful that they almost seem as if we were looking through the gates of Heaven." - John Lubbock

"As I get older I notice the years less and the seasons more." - John Hubbard

"The essence of nostalgia is an awareness that what has been will never be again." - Milton S. Eisenhower

"Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place." - Tecumseh

"What else have we but memories? For all life is divided into two parts: anticipation and memory, and if we remember richly, we must have lived richly.'' - Louis L'Amour

"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress." - Charles Dickens

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." - John Muir

"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life." - Charles Robert Darwin

"A life-long blessing for children is to fill them with warm memories of times together. Happy memories become treasures in the heart to pull out on the tough days of adulthood." - Charlotte Davis Kasl

"I needed to be in the bush. There I find solitude and beauty and purity and focus. That's where my heart lies." - Mark Burnett

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."  - - Mark Twain

"Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost

Pat

Thanks, Pat - many great quotes there.

Basser

Puckster,
Your quote is what I debate every day as I decide when to start my second life.  If I was smart, I would probably start tomorrow or at least next summer.
Westwood

What great idea to pull together quotes and an excellent collection already. good stuff.

And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.
Luke 5:16

oh and there are some good quotes in the qj limerick section...

Another favorite of dad's . . .

"That scum-sucking, barking rat of yours has just taken his last dump on my lawn. I find one more- just one- and I'm gonna catch him and staple his ass shut."

"As long as we have each other, we'll always have something to argue about."   up

"Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing."
-Thoreau

I have one more for you, but it comes with a story.  You have to read the story first.  I found this one in the Canadian Waters gift shop in 1971 after my first canoe trip (the Namakan River Loop, a 6-day trip with my husband.)  It was on a set of 8 note papers, with the text on one side and a black woodcut-type drawing of a loon in the reeds on the other side.  I bought the box of note papers for my "souvenir".  When I got home I used seven of them for writing notes to my friends--we used to do that back in the 70's before email--and then I saved the last one and put it in a frame.  It has hung in our home ever since.

A few years ago I wanted a "signature" line for Quiet Journey, so I decided to write to the author for permission to use it, since, as a professional musician, I am very sensitive to never breaking any copyright infringement laws.  I googled Roger Drayna and found a link to his church in Wausau, WI, so I wrote a letter to him and sent it to the church.  I told him about us, about our years of canoeing and where we had gone, about how his little note was hanging on our wall, and asked if I could use his quote for my signature.

He called me shortly thereafter.  He was very gracious and gave permission readily.   The quote is from an article he wrote for "Field and Stream", after a Quetico fishing trip.

Roger Drayna died in 2012.  I am confident that he would be pleased if I pass it on to you.

From: "Canoe Route to Fishing Adventure" by Roger Drayna, © 1971 (used by permission)

"How can one sum up this wild and lonely land?  There is no easy way.  It must be known in glory and adversity.  In cold and wet and sun and wind.  In sky lines and rock and surging water.  In the men of the party who, through the struggles of each day, become a sort of community of saints, dedicated to a concern for each man but sounding very little like saints at all.  To make such a journey is to stand very near to splendor and to sense it for the delicate and wondrous thing it really is.  And, it must be held to carefully in photographs and in words but mostly in memory.  For, despite the promises we make, way does lead on to way, and perhaps we shall never come back."

My kid and I were discussing something totally unrelated recently but her words rang true.

"If I understood why, that would mean I was crazy too."