Jack Turner > Quotes

“(After witnessing a young Indian man throwing a popped grain of some sort at a caged, humiliated mountain lion)
That was it. I grabbed his throat and sank my thumb and middle finger into the joint behind his Adam’s apple. I did not want to kill him, though, not even hurt him. I just wanted to terrify him so badly that he would never, ever, ever, ever again even presume to think of throwing something at that lion.”
― Jack Turner, The Abstract Wild

“As Rockwell Kent said in his Alaskan journal, 'The wonder of wilderness was its tranquility.' I wish I had said that first. It grasps the salient point: not just tranquility, but wonder at tranquility. Wilderness is a surprise. We were raised on nature films that converted nature into thrilling entertainment; we still expect to find predators lurking everywhere in the wildness, and danger and excitement. But instead we find tranquility. And wonder at it.

Interesting word, "wonder." From Old English wundrain: 'to be affected with astonishment.' Its antonyms name the most pervasive symptoms of modern life: indifference, boredom, ennui. The dictionary strains to explain wonder, mentioning awe, astonishment, marvel, miracle, wizardry, bewilderment (note the 'wild' in 'bewilderment'). Finally it offers this: 'Far superior to anything formerly recognized or foreseen.'

Indeed.”
― Jack Turner, Travels in the Greater Yellowstone

“It will not help us if this tradition is created for us, to be read about in yet another book. To create a wilder self, the self must live the life of the wild, mold a particular form of human character, a form of life. Relics will not do, tourism will not do, books will not do.”
― Jack Turner, The Abstract Wild

“If spices smelled divine, symbolizing if not in a sense summoning a holy presence, there was a certain consistency in supposing they might counteract the malodorous influence of the Devil.”
― Jack Turner, Spice: The History of a Temptation

“Those who seek to be rich fall into temptation and the snares of the Devil.”
― Jack Turner, Spice: The History of a Temptation

“bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me’.”
― Jack Turner, Spice: The History of a Temptation

“We lost the wild bit by bit for ten thousand years and forgave each loss and then forgot.”
― Jack Turner, The Abstract Wild