“My feeling of wholeness seems to come while I am in the middle in the wilds, most often when I am alone, but also with someone who understands as I do. Paddling with Elizabeth when our strokes are timed as one, it comes often, or when we are sitting quietly on some high lovely place. We are a part of the silence together.” Sigurd F. Olson Reflections from the North Country
“Love of the land is the basis
of the unending struggle of those
who really care against those
who see only material rewards.” Sigurd F. Olson Reflections from the North Country
“There must above all be joy and excitement in learning, and I become convinced that field trips and observations were as important as books and laboratories.” Sigurd F. Olson Home from the Hill
“We sit in silence drinking in the radiant glory about us.
Words would have been sacrilege.” Sigurd F. Olson Describes cruise thru the Woods
“At times on quiet waters
one does not speak aloud
but only in whispers,
for then all noise is sacrilege.” Sigurd F. Olson The Singing Wilderness 133
“A beautiful winter morning, cold and clear. All of the fogginess and mist has gone and the air is as clear as the bluest ice. It must be forty below at least for on either side of the sun the sundogs are riding like two miniature rainbows, the kind of a morning when I would like to be on my skis skimming along the lake trails. The air alone is enough to make one long for action. Breathing itself is an exhilaration. On mornings such as this in spite of the cold I understand why people will persist in living in the north. South there is never the wild joy of living there is up here.” Sigurd F. Olson Journal, January 17, 1930