I lay there knowing something eerie ties us to the world of animals. Sometimes the animals pull you backward into it. You share hunger and fear with them like salt in blood.
BARRY LOPEZIf there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox.
More Barry Lopez Quotes
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The land urges us to come around to an understanding of ourselves.
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real beauty is so deep you have to move into darkness to understand it.
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To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together.
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The interior landscape responds to the character and subtlety of the exterior landscape; the shape of the individual mind is affected by the land as it is by genes.
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People think that if you’ve written a book and somebody’s given you a pat on the back then, you know, it’s all – you’re all settled, you know? You’re going to be fine. I know that if I’m not confused, and really afraid, my work isn’t going to be any good.
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The gaze of the wolf reached into our soul.
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In behaving respectfully toward all that the land contains, it is possible to imagine a stifling ignorance falling away from us.
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It is the imagination that gives shape to the universe.
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We simply do not understand our place in the universe and have not the courage to admit it.
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There’s so much to be afraid of.
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We cannot, of course, save the World because we do not have authority over its parts. We can serve the world though. That is everyone’s calling, to lead a life that helps.
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The land gets inside of us; and we must decide one way or another what this means, what we will do about it.
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It does not demean men to want to be what they imagine the wolf to be, but it does demean them to kill the animal for it.
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You can’t learn anything from saguaro cactus, from ocotillo. They are just passing through; their roots, their much heralded dormancy in the dry season, these are only illusions of permanence. They know even less than you do.
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I know of no restorative of heart, body, and soul more effective against hopelessness than the restoration of the Earth.
BARRY LOPEZ