“One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out.
Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part-time crusader, a half-hearted
fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and
adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to
enjoy it. While you can. While it is still here. So get out there and hunt and
fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the
forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the
rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while
and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious, and awesome
space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly
attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I
promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk bound
people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by
desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."
–
Edward Abbey