The Trail Quotes

“Recreation is needed for re-creation.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“Barbara Tuchman said, Books are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“No”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“When someone dies”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“The best thing we can do is live our lives to their fullest now and be the best person we can.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“Pain is temporary, quitting is forever.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“Like Antonio Machado wrote, Traveler, there is no road; your path is made by walking.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“when you’re backpacking everything is simplified. You take only what you need, and that’s what you’ve gotta make do with.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“The only real thing we ever own is ourselves. Everything else is just borrowed from the universe and, at some point, we must return it all.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“Riding in a car compressed the world, but walking expanded it—making everything seem larger, and yet more personal. Sitting on this rock, overlooking this magnificent panorama, I felt like an ant traversing the great throne of God.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“writing, 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.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“Muir once wrote, I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“By just letting the waves of feelings roll over you. Acknowledge them. Enjoy the good, suffer the bad, but realize that they are all just feelings, like waves of water. Don’t try to cling to them or chase after them. Just accept them as they naturally ebb and flow.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“Buddhism teaches the transcendence of desire. It teaches that because all feeling are fleeting, we must accept our feelings without trying to hold on to them or push them away.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“When someone dies, the only thing we’re left with is the choice of whether to focus on the gap in our lives or to celebrate the joy they’ve left behind.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“Beats loafin’ around the city drinkin’ beer,” replied the younger guy. “Ya get paid to live outdoors, can’t waste the money ya earn, and get in better”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“If you hike a lot in the woods, or even drive up a scenic highway like the one through Big Sur, you’ll notice most tourists stop for photographs in front of bridges. There’s something about the contrast between man-made objects and a natural landscape that attracts people.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“Books are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“In God’s wildness lies the hope of the world—the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“I feel so small standing here, like an atom on the edge of a vast abyss.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“My point is that population, human population, depends on agriculture. The only reason the world’s population keeps growing is because we keep fixing more nitrogen, to grow more plants, to feed more people with. And that just makes more babies, who grow into more hungry people, who only want more resources, more cars, more houses, more money, and more food. It’s a vicious cycle man, and it’s not sustainable. We’re running out of resources. The whole thing is fueled by petroleum.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“Transcendentalists believe that there is an inherent ‘goodness’ in people and nature, but that this goodness becomes corrupted by society and its social systems. They believe that people are at their best when they’re independent and self-reliant.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“No—people are not taken from us, because they were never ours to begin with. The only real thing we ever own is ourselves. Everything else is just borrowed from the universe and, at some point, we must return it all.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“When someone dies, the only thing we’re left with is the choice of whether to focus on the gap in our lives or to celebrate the joy they’ve left behind. For me, I choose the joy. All the small gifts her company afforded me. All the lessons I learned from her. All the memories of the times we spent together. A part of her spirit lives on inside me and inside our children. I think if she’s watching us now, she’d be happy to know how much we cherish her memory, rather than being consumed with grief over her loss, over something we can’t hold on to.” “But wait, can’t you experience both the joy of what she meant to you and the sadness over her loss?” “No, not in my experience. The two emotions are opposites, and if you try to hold on to both, you’ll only have melancholy. I’m not saying I never feel sad about Katrine’s death. Sometimes the pain of her passing washes over me and I cry, or I sit silently for a time thinking of her. In the end, it’s the remembrance”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“marsh pheasant has to take ten steps to find a scrap of food. It must walk a hundred paces for a paltry peck of water. Yet despite this, it doesn’t wish to be locked up in a cage. Even were it dining like a king, it would not be happy.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“A marsh pheasant has to take ten steps to find a scrap of food. It must walk a hundred paces for a paltry peck of water. Yet despite this, it doesn’t wish to be locked up in a cage. Even were it dining like a king, it would not be happy.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail

“The meaning of life is simply to be present during the journey. There is no goal, just the path.”
― Ethan Gallogly, The Trail