The Only Kayak Quotes

“Wilderness areas are places to explore deeply yet lightly; to exercise freedom but also restraint, to manage but also leave alone, to bring us face-to-face with a dilemma in our democracy. How do we convince people to save something they may never see, touch, or hear? A starving man can’t eat his illusions, let alone his principles.”
― Kim Heacox, Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska

“Do you work a job that slowly kills you so you can afford health coverage to pay medical expenses? Or do you live right with the earth and make your own way, keep things simple, and take care of yourself?”
― Kim Heacox, Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska

“Where was our language of reverence? Of sacredness? Every year in America we add hundreds of words to our dictionaries that describe our infatuation with pop culture and technology, but none that describe a deepening regard for the natural world.”
― Kim Heacox, Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Long ago, travel was full of risk and hard work. The English noun travel was born from the word travail, which came (by way of France) from the Latin tripalium, meaning a three-staked instrument of torture. To travel was to struggle against steep odds and have no guarantees of success. It required a lot of planning and expense and great physical endurance. By the mid-1800s people began to travel for pleasure. They took tours and came to be known as “tourists.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Tenakee Inlet”
― Kim Heacox, Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska

“She quoted First Lady Eleanor Franklin: “Do at least one thing each day that scares you.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“The best thing Dr. Folsom taught me (though I didn’t realize it at the time) was not how to see nature but how to get along with people who see it differently. It is better to touch a heart than it is to teach a fact.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Amid all this there’s plenty of talk about saving the earth. I’ll tell you, the earth has taken some hard hits in the past. It’ll survive. What needs saving, I believe, is the human race and our ability to restrain ourselves, if we have such a thing. What needs saving is the rich tapestry of life around us that we take for granted. What needs saving—perhaps even found to begin with—is the intrinsic value of nature beyond any human utility.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Our frustration with others is always greatest when we’re frustrated with ourselves”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Alaska’s governor Walter Hickel, a champion of development, builder of shopping malls, and proponent of wolf control, told NBC News, “You just can’t let nature run wild.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Every year in America we add hundreds of words to our dictionaries that describe our infatuation with pop culture and technology, but none that describe a deepening regard for the natural world.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Every native culture in North America has myths and legends about the bear, many of them tributes to wisdom and strength. “The bear is good to talk with,” say the Yupik Eskimos. “If the bear wanted to speak with you, all it needed to do was remove its mask and there beneath was a human.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“One day the Inuit journeyed out to gather grass along the coast. When they got to where they were going and found the grass stunted by a late spring, they sat down and in Nansen’s words “waited for the grass to grow.” The lesson is simple. Be patient, stay put.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“The lesson is simple. Be patient, stay put.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Whining makes you angry, and anger makes you bitter.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“In the wilderness you learn what’s authentic and what is not. To “boot up” means to put on your boots not turn on your computer. A mouse is still a mouse. Software is warm socks. The hard drive is your kayak. You sleep on the ground until you’re uncomfortable in a bed. You breath fresh air until you suffocate indoors. You laugh from your toes and fly in your dreams. You find that you can sing the high notes; that true wealth isn’t a matter of adding to your possessions but of subtracting from the sum of your desires.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“If an ocean can be vanquished, Folsom asked, is any place safe?”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Hush your fears, my boy, we will get across safe, though it is not going to be easy. No right way is easy in this rough world. We must risk our lives in order to save them.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Live now. Every day with a friend is a gift. Nothing lasts forever. Even mountains wash to the sea. She”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Travel this country and you move through more than geography; you move through time.”
― Kim Heacox, The Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Long ago travel was full of risk and hard work. The English noun “travel” was born from the word travail, which came (by way of France) from the Latin tripalium, meaning a three-staked instrument of torture. To travel was to struggle against steep odds and have no guarantees of success. It required a lot of planning and expense, and great physical endurance.”
― Kim Heacox, Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska

“To watch an animal so exquisitely fitted in its world was better than any ballet.”
― Kim Heacox , Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“Our frustration with others is always greatest when we're frustrated with ourselves.”
― Kim Heacox, Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“This I was certain: Glacier Bay offered a clarity more profound than any book; an original text, a reminder that our language evolved as we moved away from places like this, not into them.”
― Kim Heacox, Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“I'm telling you this because I believe all our hearts run together in the same way. We collide and accrete and become something of a whole, an amalgam of hearts and dreams, of friends, neighbors, and fellow travelers who influence each other across generations.”
― Kim Heacox, Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska

“We must pass through the prism of our own destruction to see a new and better light.”
― Kim Heacox, Only Kayak: A Journey Into The Heart Of Alaska