“It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming.”
—John Steinbeck
“A mountain is a fact – a trout is a moment of beauty known only to men who seek them.”
— Al McClane
Category Archives: quote
On Fishing
Getting the itch again…
Ted Simon and his Triumph Tiger 100
“Regardless of the wonders of technology and communication, our world is the same size as it ever was, and somewhere on its surface colorful, fascinating and unpredictable things are happening, just as they always have. The internet – and I’m on it too – is a wonderful way for some of us to communicate certain kinds of information, but even at its best it can never substitute for physical interaction, and at worst it is an escape from reality that can come periously close to paranoia. Modern technology is a culture that cuts us off from the bigger world surrounding it. As human animals, we need to get out into that world, to feel it, smell it, think like it, to learn how good it is, and to feel free.”
—- Ted Simon
Covelo, 1996
“Mountains of music swell in the rivers, hills of music billow in the creeks, and meadows of music murmur in the rills that ripple over the rocks, while other melodies are heard in the gorges of the lateral canyons. The Grand Canyon is a land of song.”
— John Wesley Powell
50 Years Ago
On 19 November 1963, former President Dwight Eisenhower addressed a crowd at the Gettysburg Battlefield on the 100th Anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Eisenhower’s words were mostly forgotten after the tragic events that would occur three days later in Dallas.
“We mark today the centennial of an immortal address. We stand where Abraham Lincoln stood as, a century ago, he gave to the world words as moving in their solemn cadence as they are timeless in their meaning. Little wonder it is that, as here we sense his deep dedication to freedom, our own dedication takes added strength.
Lincoln had faith that the ancient drums of Gettysburg, throbbing mutual defiance from the battle lines of the blue and the gray, would one day beat in unison, to summon a people, happily united in peace, to fulfill, generation by generation, a noble destiny. His faith has been justified – but the unfinished work of which he spoke in 1863 is still unfinished; because of human frailty, it always will be.
Where we see the serenity with which time has invested this hallowed ground, Lincoln saw the scarred earth and felt the press of personal grief. Yet he lifted his eyes to the future, the future that is our present. He foresaw a new birth of freedom, a freedom and equality for all which, under God, would restore the purpose and meaning of America, defining a goal that challenges each of us to attain his full stature of citizenship.
We read Lincoln’s sentiments, we ponder his words – the beauty of the sentiments he expressed enthralls us; the majesty of his words holds us spellbound – but we have not paid to his message its just tribute until we – ourselves – live it. For well he knew that to live for country is a duty, as demanding as is the readiness to die for it. So long as this truth remains our guiding light, self-government in this nation will never die.
True to democracy’s basic principle that all are created equal and endowed by the Creator with priceless human rights, the good citizen now, as always before, is called upon to defend the rights of others as he does his own; to subordinate self to the country’s good; to refuse to take the easy way today that may invite national disaster tomorrow; to accept the truth that the work still to be done awaits his doing.
On this day of commemoration, Lincoln still asks of each of us, as clearly as he did of those who heard his words a century ago, to give that increased devotion to the cause for which soldiers in all our wars have given the last full measure of devotion. Our answer, the only worthy one we can render to the memory of the great emancipator, is ever to defend, protect and pass on unblemished, to coming generations the heritage – the trust – that Abraham Lincoln, and all the ghostly legions of patriots of the past, with unflinching faith in their God, have bequeathed to us – a nation free, with liberty, dignity, and justice for all.”
—President Dwight D. Eisenhower
“When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.”
—John Muir, “Travels in Alaska”, 1915
Buy a Spectre a Drink
Happy All Hallows’ Eve
“All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard in the afternoon now came crowding upon his recollection. The night grew darker and darker; the stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, moreover, approaching the very place where many of the scenes of the ghost stories had been laid.”
–Washington Irving “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
“Few places in this world are more dangerous than home. Fear not, therefore, to try the mountain passes. They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action.”
—John Muir, “The Mountains of California”
Painting of Lolo Pass: “Generations Passed” – Oil on canvas by John Potter
NEMO 1934
“The perfection of this place is one reason why I distrust ever
returning to the cities. Here I wander in beauty and perfection.
There one walks in the midst of ugliness and mistakes. …
Here I take my belongings with me. The picturesque gear
of packing, and my gorgeous Navajo saddle blankets make
a place my own. But when I go, I leave no trace.”
“As to when I shall visit civilization; it will not be soon, I
think. I have not tired of the wilderness; rather I enjoy its
beauty and the vagrant life I lead, more keenly all the time.
I prefer the saddle to the street car and the star sprinkled
sky to a roof, the obscure and difficult trail, leading into the
unknown, to any paved highway, and the deep peace of the
wild to the discontent bred by cities.
“
“Say that I starved, that I was lost and weary
That I was burned and blinded by the desert sun
footsore, thirsty, sick with strange diseases,
lonely and wet and cold, but that I kept my dream!”
“I have been thinking more and more that I shall always be a
lone wanderer of the wilderness. God, how the trail lures
me. You cannot comprehend its resistless fascination for me.
After all the lone trail is best. I hope I’ll be able to buy good
horses and a better saddle. I’ll never stop wandering. And
when the times comes to die, I’ll find the wildest, loneliest,
most desolate spot there is.”
— Everett Ruess
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