One Man's Wilderness Quotes

“There is always a sadness about packing. I guess you wonder if where you're going is as good as where you've been.”
― Richard Proenneke, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Needs? I guess that is what bothers so many folks. They keep expanding their needs until they are dependent on too many things and too many other people... I wonder how many things in the average American home could be eliminated if the question were asked, "Must I really have this?" I guess most of the extras are chalked up to comfort or saving time.

Funny thing about comfort - one man's comfort is another man's misery. Most people do't work hard enough physically anymore, and comfort is not easy to find. It is surprising how comfortable a hard bunk can be after you come down off a mountain.”
― Richard Proenneke, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Chores are easier if forethought is given to them and they are looked upon as little pleasures to perform instead of inconveniences that steal time and try the patience.”
― Richard Proenneke, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“When the time comes for a man to look his Maker in the eye, where better could the meeting be held than in the wilderness?”
― Richard Louis Proenneke, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“I enjoy working for my heat. I don't just press a button or twist a thermostat dial. I use the big crosscut saw and the axe, and while I'm getting my heat supply I'm working up an appetite that makes simple food just as appealing as anything a French chef could create.”
― Richard Proenneke, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Why worry about something that isn’t? Worrying about something that might happen is not a healthy pastime. A man’s a fool to live his life under a shadow like that. Maybe that’s how an ulcer begins.”
― Richard Louis Proenneke, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“The more I see as I sit here among the rocks, the more I wonder about what I am not seeing.”
― Richard Proenneke, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Eight and a half miles can be covered in minutes in a car on an expressway, but what does a man see? What he gains in time he loses in benefit to his body and mInd.”
― Richard Proenneke, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Eight and a half miles can be covered in minutes in a car on an expressway, but what does a man see? What he gains in time he loses in benefit to his body and mind.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“News never changes much. It’s just the same things happening to different people. I would rather experience things happening to me than read about them happening to others. I am my own newspaper and my own radio. I honestly don’t believe that man was meant to know everything going on in the world, all at the same time. A man turns on the TV and all those commentators bombard him with the local, the national and the international news. The newspapers do the same thing, and the poor guy with all the immediate problems of his own life is burdened with those of the whole world.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“The price was physical toll. Money does little good back here. It could not buy the fit feeling that surged through my arms and shoulders. It could not buy the feeling of accomplishment. I had been my own tour guide, and my own power had been my transportation. This great big country was my playground, and I could afford the price it demanded.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness

“Why worry about something that isn’t? Worrying about something that might happen is not a healthy pastime. A man’s a fool to live his life under a shadow like that. Maybe that’s how an ulcer begins. I”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness

“This country makes a man younger than his birthdays.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“During Dick's long tenure, Twin Lakes became part of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. Today, a ranger station is situated near the foot of the lower lake...the cabin's guest register lists hundreds of visitors, including former governor of Alaska Jay Hammond and the late singer John Denver.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“I've seen a lot of sights from this old spruce chunk, and have thought a lot of thoughts. The more I think about it, the better off I think I am. The crime rate up here is close to zero. I forget what it is like to be sick or have a cold. I don't have bills coming in every month to pay for things I really don't need. My legs and canoe provide my transportation. They take me as far as I care to go.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“I have often though about what I would do out here if I were stricken by a serious illness, if I broke a leg, cut myself badly, or had an attack of appendicities. Almost as quickly as the thought came, I dismissed it. Why worry about something that isn't? Worrying about something that might happen is not a healthy pastime. A man's a fool to live his life under a shadow like that. Maybe that's how an ulcer begins.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“What a man never has, he never misses. I learned something from the big game animals. Their food is pretty much the same from day to day. I don't vary my fare too much either, and I've never felt better in my life. I don't confuse my digestive system. I just season simple food with hunger.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“A place for everything; everything in its place. Whoever said that knew what he was talking about.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Wind is building up and whitecaps toss on the dark green water. After six and a half months of ice, the lake is nearly free and the mountain peaks can look at themselves in the mirror again.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Somehow I never seem to tire of just standing and looking down the lake or up at the mountains in the evening even if it is cold. If this is the way folks feel inside a church, I can understand why they go.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Why men come into this big clean country and leave it littered the way they do, I will never know. They claim to love the great outdoors but they don't have respect for it. Beer cans, bottles, and cartons were scattered all over the place. Look at the sharp edges of the mountains in the crisp, clean air, listen to the creek pouring water you can drink over the stones. Then look around and see all this junk. It's enough to turn a man's stomach.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“I guess part of a man's root system has to be nourished by contacts with family and old friends.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Anyone living alone has to get things down to a system--know where things are and what the next move is going to be. Chores are easier if forethought is given to them and they are looked upon as little pleasures to perform instead of inconveniences that steal time and try the patience.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“I realize that men working together can perform miracles such as sending men to walk on the surface of the moon. There is definitely a need and a place for teamwork, but there is also a need for an individual sometime in his life to forget the world of parts and pieces and put something together on his own—complete something. He’s got to create.”
― Sam Kieth, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“In time man gets used to almost anything, but the problem seems to be that technology is advancing faster than he can adjust to it. I think it’s time we started applying the brakes, slowing down our greed and slowing down the world.”
― Sam Kieth, One Man's Wilderness

“Two small bags of nuts with a tag, stale nuts for squirrels. Right away I remembered a story Hope Carrithers liked to tell. A little boy was watching another little boy eat a big red apple. “Can I have the core?” he asked. The other boy answered, “Ain’t gonna be no core.” That is what I will tell the squirrels. They can’t read, and they don’t know nuts are for squirrels anyway.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“Perhaps each man had his moment during the day when his vision came, a vision not unlike the one before me.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“I wonder how many things in the average American home could be eliminated if the question were asked, "Must I really have this?" I guess most of the extras are chalked up to comfort or saving time.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“I have often thought about what I would do out here if I were stricken with a serious illness, if I broke a leg, cut myself badly, or had an attack of appendicitis. Almost as quickly as the thought came, I dismissed it. Why worry about something that isn’t? Worrying about something that might happen is not a healthy pastime. A man’s a fool to live his life under a shadow like that. Maybe that’s how an ulcer begins.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

“When I started in again, I made a blunder. My mind must have been on the big ram I had been watching. I’d just finished a notch, had a real dandy fit, and was about ready to fasten it down when I noticed it was wrong end to! I tossed it to one side and started another. Guess a man needs an upset now and then to remind him that he doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey