ThinkQuote

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 329

2012-11-24T00:03:00.001+07:00

We are human beings. We are able to walk upright on two feet. We need a footpath. Right now there is a chance for Chicago and its suburbs to have a footpath, a long one. The right-of-way of the Aurora electric road lies waiting. If we have courage and foresight, such as made possible the Long Trail in Vermont and the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, and the network of public footpaths in Britain, then we can create from this strip a proud resource. Look ahead some years into the future. Imagine yourself going for a walk on an autumn day. Choose some part of the famed Illinois footpath. Where the highway crosses it, you enter over a stile. The path lies ahead, curving around a hawthorn tree, then proceeding under the shade of a forest of sugar maple trees, dipping into a hollow with ferns, then skirting a thicket of wild plum, to straighten out for a long stretch of prairie, tall grass prairie, with big blue stem and blazing star and silphium and goldenrod. You must go over a stile again, to cross a highway to another stile. This section is different. The grass is cut and garden flowers bloom in great beds. This part, you may learn, is maintained by the Chicago Horticultural Society. Beyond the garden you enter a forest again, maintained by the Morton Arboretum. At its edge begins a long stretch of water with mud banks, maintained for water birds and waders, by the Chicago Ornithological Society. You notice an abundance of red-fruited shrubs. The birds have the Audubon Societies to thank for those. You rest on one of the stout benches provided by the Prairie Club, beside a thicket of wild crab apple trees planted by the Garden Club of Illinois. Then you walk through prairie again. Four Boy Scouts pass. They are hiking the entire length of the trail. This fulfills a requirement for some merit badge. A troop of Scouts is planting acorns in a grove of cottonwood trees. Most of the time you find yourself in prairie or woodland of native Illinois plants. These stretches of trail need little or no upkeep. You come to one stretch, a long stretch, where nothing at all has been done. But university students are identifying and listing plants. The University of Chicago ecology department is in charge of this strip. They are watching to see what time and nature will do. You catch occasional glimpses of bicycles flying past, along one side. The bicycles entered through a special stile admitting them to the bicycle strip. They cannot enter the path where you walk, but they can ride far and fast without being endangered by cars, and without endangering those who walk. That is all in the future, the possible future. Right now the right-of-way lies waiting, and many hands are itching for it. Many bulldozers are drooling.
(May Theilgaard Watts)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 328

2012-11-23T00:03:00.001+07:00

Who know the Lone Trail fain would follow it. Through it lead to glory or the darkness of the pit. Ye who take the Lone Trail, bid your love good-bye. The Lone Trail, the Lone Trail follow till you die. The trails of the world be countless. And most of the trails be tried. You tread on the heels of the many. Till you come where the ways divide. And one lies safe in the sunlight. And the other is dreary and wan. Yet you look aslant at the Lone Trail. And the Lone Trail lures you on. And somehow you're sick of the highway. With its noise and its easy needs. And sometimes it leads to the desert. And the tongue swells out of the mouth. And you stagger blind to the mirage. To die in the mocking drought. And sometimes it leads to the mountain. To the light of the lone camp-fire. And you gnaw your belt in the anguish of hunger-goaded desire. And sometimes it leads to the Southland. To the swamp where the orchid glows. And you rave to your grave with the fever and they rob the corpse for its clothes. And sometimes it leads to the Northland. And the scurvy softens your bones. And your flesh dints in like putty. And you spit out your teeth like stones. And sometimes it leads to a coral reef in the wash of a weedy sea. And you sit and stare at the empty glare. Where the gulls wait greedily. And sometimes it leads to an Arctic trail. And the snows where your torn feet freeze. And you whittle away the useless clay. And crawl on your hands and knees. Often it leads to the dead-pit. Always it leads to pain. By the bones of your brothers ye know it. But oh, to follow you're fain. By your bones they will follow behind you. Till the ways of the world are made plain. Bid good-by to sweetheart, bid good-by to friend. The Lone Trail, the Lone Trail follow to the end. Tarry not, and fear not, chosen of the true. Lover of the Lone Trail, the Lone Trail waits for you.
(Robert Service)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 327

2012-11-22T00:03:00.001+07:00

Whenever possible I avoid the practice myself. If God had meant us to walk, he would have kept us down on all fours, with well-padded paws. He would have constructed our planet on the model of a simple cube, so that that notion of circularity and consequently the wheel might never have arisen. He surely would not have made mountains. There is something unnatural about walking. Especially walking uphill, which always seems to me not only unnatural but so unnecessary. That iron tug of gravitation should be all the re-minder we need that in walking uphill we are violating a basic law of nature. Yet we persist in doing it. No one can explain why. George H. Mallory's asinine rationale for climbing a mountain ?because it's there' could easily be refuted with a few well-placed hydrogen bombs. But our common sense continues to lag far behind the available technology. There are some good things to say about walking. Not many, but some. Walking takes longer, for example, than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed. I have a friend who's always in a hurry; he never gets anywhere. Walking makes the world much bigger and therefore more interesting. You have time to observe the details. The utopian technologists foresee a future for us in which distance is annihilated and anyone can transport himself anywhere, instantly. Big deal, Buckminster. To be everywhere at once is to be nowhere forever, if you ask me. That's God's job, not ours. The longest journey begins with a single step, not with a turn of the ignition key. That's the best thing about walking, the journey itself. It doesn't matter whether you get where you're going or not. You'll get there anyway. Every good hike brings you eventually back home. Right where you started. Which reminds me of circles. Which reminds me of wheels. Which reminds me my old truck needs another front-end job. Any good mechanics out there wandering through the smog?
(Edward Abbey)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 326

2012-11-21T00:03:00.001+07:00

Inseparable from the concept of service is the concept of integrity. The citizens of this great Nation place great trust in their military Services. They will continue to judge us by stricter rules than they apply to themselves And they should do that because, ultimately, their security rests with us and the way we perform our duties. The people of this Nation have entrusted their Armed Forces with the most awesome weapons the world has ever seen, but they have also placed the lives of their sons and daughters who serve and the safety of their own families for now and in the future in the hands of the Armed Forces. Don't confuse integrity with infallibility. There's a great tendency to do that. As Gary Cooper said in High Noon, you should 'aim to be high?regarded'; but you should remember that you are also human and fallible. Those who will lead you are also human and fallible. The code of the warrior class has room for fallibility Certainly, the higher up the flagpole you go, the more of your fallible backside will show. There is room for that; but, there is no room for a lack of integrity or for those who place self before duty or self before comrades or self before country. Careerism is the one great sin, and it has no place among you. If you achieve success over the bodies or the careers of your comrades, you have served your nation poorly and you have violated the code of the warrior class. There won't be any tribunal to judge your actions at the height of battle; there are only the hopes of the citizenry who are relying upon your integrity and skill. They may well criticize you later amid the relative calm of victory or defeat. But, there is a crucial moment in crisis or battle when those you lead and the citizens of the Nation can only trust that you are doing what is right. And you develop that concept through integrity.
(GEN John Vessey, Jr.)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 325

2012-11-20T00:03:00.001+07:00

I come from haunts of coot and heron. I make a sudden sally. And sparkle out among the fern. To bicker down a valley. By thirty hills I hurry down. Or slip between the ridges. By twenty thorps, a little town. And half a hundred bridges. Till last by Philip's farm I flow. To join the brimming river. For men may come and men may go. But I go on forever. I chatter over stony ways. N little sharps and trebles. I bubble into eddying hays. I babble on the pebbles. With many a curve my banks I fret. By many a field and fallow. And many a fairy foreland set. With willow-weed and mallow. I chatter, chatter, as I flow. To join the brimming river. For men may come and men may go. But I go on forever. I wind about, and in and out. With here a blossom sailing. And here and there a lusty trout. And here and there a grayling. And here and there a foamy flake Upon me, as I travel. With many a silvery water break. Above the golden gravel. And draw them all along, and flow. To join the brimming river. For men may come and men may go. But I go on forever. I steal by lawns and grassy lots. I slide by hazel covers. I move the sweet forget-me-nots. That grow for happy lovers. I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance. Among my skimming swallows. I make the netted sunbeam dance. Against my sandy shallows. I murmur under moon and stars. In brambly wildernesses. I linger by my shingly bars. I loiter round my creases. And out again I curve and flow. To join the brimming river. For men may come and men may go. But I go on forever.
(Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 324

2012-11-19T00:03:00.001+07:00

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.
(Carl Jung)

Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human automotive waste. And so that never again can we have the chance to see ourselves single, separate, vertical and individual in the world, part of the environment of trees and rocks and soil, brother to the animals, part of the natural world and competent to belong in it. Without any remaining wilderness we are committed wholly, without chance for even momentary reflection and rest, to a headlong drive into our technological termite-life, the Brave New World of a completely man-controlled environment. We need wilderness preserved as much of it as is still left, and as many kinds because it was the challenge against which our character as a people was formed. The reminder and the reassurance that it is still there is good for our spiritual health even if we never once in 10 years set foot in it. It is good for us when we are young, because of the incomparable sanity it can bring briefly, as vacation and rest, into our insane lives. It is important to us when we are old simply because it is there important, that is, simply as idea.
(Wallace Stegner)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 323

2012-11-18T00:03:00.001+07:00

Sickness is a sort of early old age; it teaches us diffidence in our earthly state.
(Pope)

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. Whets a sundial in the shade?
(Benjamin Franklin)

Greenways are popular now for some very good and lasting reasons. They remind us that our urban environment is not just a fume-choked freeway or boulevard of billboards. We may go out of our way to despise the city rather than see it as our own habitat, however unnatural. Here we work, consume, sleep but we also grow, play, and learn. Few of us live near the rainforests or Arctic wilderness that attract so much environmental attention. We experience our lives as urban people by the year 2000, over 80% of Americans will live in cities or suburban areas. And yet there is wildness, if not Wilderness by bureaucratic designation, in our urban areas. As conservationists, greenways, as places where the natural world lives in the midst of cities, deserve more of our attention. Most of us have an image of a greenway as a river plus a trail. Those are the typical ingredients in greenway systems some as large and complex as the Hudson River, others as small as the nameless creek through a townhouse project. Other greenway corridors include road and utility rights-of-way, abandoned rail lines, drainage ways and canals. All these combine the natural with the industrial, provide recreation and wildlife habitat, and link utilities and living streams. In short, greenways are linear parks that borrow the power in our minds of the River, the Forest, and the Journey. The importance of greenways lies in this diversity. While greenways provide some very tangible benefits to the urban world, they also make appealing environmental projects.
(Stuart Macdonald)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 322

2012-11-17T00:03:00.001+07:00

They teach anything in universities today. You can major in mud pies.
(Orson Welles)

The current tendency in the parks is to limit entrances by upping admission prices, requiring reservations, and so forth. These solutions may be necessary, and I would rather put up with them than see a park destroyed. But usually pressures could be better reduced by getting rid of the motor vehicles. A car takes up more space, makes more noise, pollutes more air, requires more facilities, and carries more trash than a person or a lot of people. Let the visitors walk or put them on bicycles. That is what the parks are all about anyway. Let them stick their noses in flowers, gawk at the cliffs, wonder at the sunset, and get blisters on their feet. But for God's sake, let them leave their gasoline engines somewhere else we need parks, not parking lots.
(Raymond Bridge)

Ultimate purpose is to conserve, use, and enjoy the mountain hinterland which penetrates the populous portion of America from north to south. The Trail (or system of trails) is a means for making the land accessible. The Appalachian Trail is to this Appalachian region what the Pacific Railway was to the Far West a means of ?opening up' the country. But a very different kind of ?opening up. ' Instead of a railway we want a ?trail way'. But unlike the railway the trail way must preserve (and develop) a certain environment. Otherwise its whole point is lost. The railway ?opens up' a country as a site for civilization; the trail way should ?open up' a country as an escape from civilization. The path of the trail way should be as ?pathless' as possible; it should be the minimum consistent with practical accessibility.
(Benton Mackaye)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 321

2012-11-16T00:03:00.001+07:00

Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
(G. K. Chesterton)

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
(Franklin D. Roosevelt)

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice, there is.
(Chuck Reid)

I believe they, the standards of leadership, can be boiled down to four basic qualities, which are fundamental to the profession of arms. First, we believe in commitment. That begins with your oath .... Commitments you must always remember are those you have made to your nation, your service, your leaders, and those you lead .... Second, we believe in competence .... You must prepare yourself. If you are not competent in a tactical and technical sense, you will not be fit to lead. You will be a danger to your soldiers, exposing them needlessly, and destroying their confidence in themselves as well as in you . . . . Thirdly, we believe in candor . . . . Let your subordinates and your superiors see you as honest in all your dealings. Expect the same from them. . .Finally, we believe in courage . . . . Physical courage is rooted in believing in your unit, your own preparations and excellence in leadership, and your devotion to your service and your country . . . . Moral courage is as important as physical courage . . . . If you believe you are right, after sober and considered judgment?hold your position. You owe your country nothing less The officer corps must possess the highest sense of moral courage if it is to fulfill its purpose of leadership for the American soldier, and service to the American people.
(BG S. L. A. Marshall)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 320

2012-11-15T00:03:00.001+07:00

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.
(Loren Eiseley)

Gardening is an active participation in the deepest mysteries of the universe.
(Thomas Berry)

The purpose of this organization shall be first to promote, construct, and maintain a connected trail, with related trails, to be called The Appalachian Trail, and to preserve and restore the natural environment of the Trail and its adjacent lands; and to provide an educational opportunity to enjoy the Appalachian Trail, related trails and adjacent lands. This Trail shall run, as far as practicable, over the summits of the mountains and through the wild lands of the Atlantic Seaboard and adjoining states from Maine to Georgia, so as to render accessible for hiking, backpacking, and other forms of primitive travel and living, the said mountains and wild lands, and shall be a means for conserving and developing, within this region, the primeval environment as a natural resource.
(Anonymous)

Trails in the 21st century will: be located, designed, and managed as accessible and appealing to serve all Americans regardless of age, physical ability, cultural background, economic situation, or geographic location develop apace with other infrastructure systems to meet the changing needs of a changing nation be within easy and safe reach of every American form a complete grid criss-crossing the nation, interconnecting at all levels, forming a new infrastructural network be characterized by meaningful connections, whereby all Americans will have access to parks, places of employment, and neighboring communities provide diverse experiences while respecting both the natural and man-made environments provide numerous benefits, including recreation and transportation opportunities while conserving natural and cultural resources be built through creative partnerships, relying heavily on citizen initiation, while combining the resources of nonprofit organizations, public agencies, foundations, and private corporations
(Anonymous)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 319

2012-11-14T00:03:00.000+07:00

A river is more than an amenity. It is a treasure.
(Oliver Wendell Holmes)

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.
(Les Brown)

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
(Lao Tzu)

The most basic thing that can be done is to encourage the simple pleasures of walking and cycling. It is something of a tribute to Americans that they do as much cycling and walking as they do, for very little has been done to encourage these activities, and a good bit, if inadvertently, to discourage them. We are spending billions for our new highways, but few of them being constructed or planned make any provision for safe walking and cycling. And many of the suburban developments surrounding our cities do not even have sidewalks, much less cycle paths. Europe, which has even greater population, has much to teach us about building recreation into the environment. Holland is constructing a national network of bicycle trails. In Scotland, the right of the public to walk over the privately owned moors goes back centuries. In Scandinavia, buses going from the city to the countryside have pegs on their sides on which people can hang their bicycles. Car ownership is rising all over Europe, but in the planning of their roads and the posting of them, Europeans make a special effort to provide for those who walk or cycle. Why not here? Along the broad rights-of-way of our highways particularly those in suburban areas simple trails could be laid out for walkers and cyclists. Existing rights-of-way for high tension lines, now so often left to weeds and rubble, could at very little cost be made into a ?connector' network of attractive walkways.
(Anonymous)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 318

2012-11-13T00:03:00.001+07:00

Our great fear is not that we are powerless, but that we are powerful beyond measure.
(Anonymous)

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
(Epictetus)

You may be disappointed if you fail but you are doomed if you dont try.
(Beverly Sills)

Let no one who loves be called unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow
(James M. Barrie)

To the untrained eye, selfish or ego climbing and selfless climbing may appear identical. Both kinds of climber place one foot in front of the other. Both breathe in and out at the same rate. Both stop when tired. Both go forward when rested. But what a difference! The ego climber is like an instrument that's out of adjustment. He puts his foot down an instant too soon or late. He's likely to miss a beautiful passage of sunlight through the trees. He goes on when the sloppiness of his step says he's tired. He rests at odd times. He looks up the trail trying to see what's ahead even when he knows what's ahead because he just looked a second before. He goes too fast or too slow for the conditions and when he talks his talk is forever about something else. He's here but he's not here. He rejects the here, is unhappy with it, wants to be further up the trail but when he gets there will be just as unhappy because then it will be ?there. ' What he's looking for, what he wants is all around him. But he doesn't want that because it is all around him. Every step is an effort, both physically and spiritually because he imagines his goal to be external and distant.
(Robert Pirsig)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 317

2012-11-12T00:03:00.001+07:00

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
(Martin Luther King Jr.)

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy
(Anne Frank)

One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.
(Jack Penn)

Learn to be happy with what you've got, while in pursuit of what you want
(Jim Rohn)

The forgotten outdoorsmen of today are those who like to walk, hike, ride horseback, or bicycle. For them we must have trails as well as highways. Nor should automobiles be permitted to tyrannize the more leisurely human traffic. Old and youth alike can participate. Our doctors recommend and encourage such activity for fitness and fun. I am requesting, therefore, that the Secretary of the Interior work with his colleagues in the Federal Government and with state and local leaders and recommend to me a cooperative program to encourage a national system of trails, building up the more than 100,000 miles of trails in our national forests and parks. There are many new and exciting trail projects underway across the land. In Arizona, a county has arranged for miles of irrigation canal banks to be used by riders and hikers. In Illinois, an abandoned railroad right-of-way is being developed as a prairie path. In New Mexico, utility rights-of-way are used as public trails. As with so much of our quest for beauty and quality, each community has opportunities for action. We can and should have an abundance of trails for walking, cycling, and horseback riding, in and close to our cities. In the back county we need to copy the great Appalachian Trail in all parts of America and to make full use of rights-of-way and other public paths.
(President Lyndon B. Johnson)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 316

2012-11-11T00:03:00.001+07:00

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens
(Abraham Lincoln)

The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more)
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, power lines and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there. I may never in my life get to Alaska, for example, but I am grateful that it's there. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis.
(Edward Abbey)

We can tie this country together with threads of green that everywhere grant us access to the natural world. Rivers and streams are the most obvious corridors, offering trails on the shores and boating at mid-channel. They could link open areas already existing as national and state parks, grasslands, forests, lakes, and reservoirs, the entire network winding through both rural and urban populations. Thousands of miles of abandoned rail lines should become hiking, biking, and bridle paths. Utility rights-of-way could share their open space not only with hikers and cyclists but also with wildlife. Citizens and landowners, both individual and corporate, can look for opportunities to establish and maintain greenways with the help of volunteer labor. Imagine every person in the U. S. Being within easy walking distance of a greenway that could lead around the entire nation. It can be done if we act soon.
(Anonymous)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 315

2012-11-10T00:09:00.001+07:00

Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
(Oscar Wilde)

What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.
(Napoleon Hill)

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.
(George Bernard Shaw)

I dream of a day when one cannot only walk or bike from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but from Hudson Bay to the Caribbean. These routes will vary. Some will stick to the back country, some will be on ?blue' highways, some through city neighborhoods, some past farms. But all can feature a variety of natural, recreational and cultural experiences which marks our diversity. The American Discovery Trail embraces this diversity, linking hundreds of communities from coast to coast. Would that there will be more American Discovery Trails criss-crossing North America, binding us together as the road system does now, but with an eye for community building, building a sustainable, inhabitable, safe earth for our children to the seventh generation.
(William Spitzer)

No servant brought them meals; they got their meat out of the river or went without. No traffic cop whistled them off the hidden rock in the next rapids. No friendly roof kept them dry when they mis-guessed whether or not to pitch the tent. No guide showed them which camping spots offered a night-long breeze, and which a night-long misery of mosquitoes; which firewood made clean coals, and which only smoke. The elemental simplicities of wilderness travel were thrills not only because of their novelty, but because they represented complete freedom to make mistakes. The wilderness gave them their first taste of those rewards and penalties for wise and foolish acts which every woodsman faces daily, but against which civilization has built a thousand buffers.
(Aldo Leopold)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 314

2012-11-09T00:03:00.001+07:00

Self examination is the one test from which the righteous is never excused.
(Anonymous)

Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician.
(Matthew Prior)

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
(Jane Austen)

I've been chasing rainbows since I was a kid Seeking' out the paths where no others did. The life of the trail I took to my heart. Wandering' wild, and living' the part. I found my way down that endless track. It fit me well, this life of the pack. Out where the world is one, untamed and on the run. Stretching out into the setting sun. I walk the long trails, I came of age on the long trails. I found my place in those wide open spaces . Out there a-walking' on the long trails.
(Walking' Jim Stolz)

Our children and grandchildren deserve the opportunity to realize the fulfillment of the recommendations contained within Trails for All Americans [report]: they deserve the opportunity to hike through an old growth forest that has been protected by virtue of its greenway designation; they deserve the opportunity to feel the wind whistle through their hair as they glide across the snow in northern states on their solar powered, modern and quiet snowmobiles. Or as they hike, bike or ride their horse from the Atlantic coast, through the Appalachians, the prairies of the central plains, and across the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra and on to the Golden Gate Bridge. And, they deserve the opportunity to enjoy the quality of life that we have enjoyed as Americans to walk, run and ride on a national system of trails and greenways that reflects the heritage and pride of our great nation.
(Chuck Flink)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 313

2012-11-08T00:03:00.001+07:00

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost
(G.K. Chesterton)

The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.
(G. K. Chesterton)

Deal with life the way it is, not the way you wish it could be.
(Anonymous)

Many will be shocked to find when the day of judgment nears that there's a special place in heaven set aside for volunteers. Furnished with big recliners, Satin Couches, and footstools where there's no committee chairman no group leaders or car pools. No eager team that needs a coach no bazaar and no bake sale. There will be nothing to fold or mail. Telephone lists will be outlawed. But a finger snap will bring cool drinks and gourmet dinners and treats fit for a king. You ask, ?Who'll serve these privileged few and work for all they're worth?' Why, all those who reaped the benefits and not once volunteered on Earth. Volunteers, God Bless Them,
(Ann Landers)

Greenways can draw people together in their communities to provide open spaces for all close to their own homes. They have the potential to be this country's most important land-based effort for conservation and recreation in the next several decades. They can draw private and local entities into lead roles in provision of recreation opportunities. They can capitalize on the entrepreneurial spirit of Americans and give pride of accomplishment and responsibility to millions of people in every community. They can protect vital water, fish, wildlife, and recreation resources as integral parts of the growth of cities and communities. And, if greenways truly capture the imagination and boldness of the American spirit, they could eventually form the corridors that connect open spaces, parks, forests, and deserts.
(President's Commission On Americans Outdoors)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 312

2012-11-07T00:03:00.001+07:00

A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.
(Anonymous)

Wisdom is what's left after we've run out of personal opinions.
(Cullen Hightower)

Oh, the powers of Nature! She knows what we need, and the doctors know nothing.
(Benvenuto Cellini)

Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity. Posterity has done nothing for us.
(Abraham Lincoln)

More than anything else, we found in Americans a love of the land, and a shared conviction that it is our legacy for the future. We found that recreation is important to people in their daily lives, and that most of them cannot imagine a world in which they did not have access to the outdoors. We found that Americans are willing to work, and to pay, to see that quality outdoor opportunities continue to be available to them, and to their children's children.
(Anonymous)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. And sorry I could not travel both. And be one traveler, long I stood. And looked down one as far as I could. To where it bent in the undergrowth. Then took the other, as just as fair. And having perhaps the better claim. Because it was grassy and wanted wear. Though as for that, the passing there. Had worn them really about the same. And both that morning equally lay. In leaves no step had trodden black.. Oh, I kept the first for another day!. Yet knowing how way leads on to way. I doubted if I should ever come back.. I shall be telling this with a sigh. Somewhere ages and ages hence:. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I. I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.
(Robert Frost)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 311

2012-11-06T00:03:00.001+07:00

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
(Mark Twain)

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. Whets a sundial in the shade?
(Benjamin Franklin)

Staying calm is the best way to take the wind out of an angry persons sails.
(Anonymous)

It is not how much We like it, but how much We enjoy it.
(Charles H. Spurgeon)

According to 13 national surveys conducted between 1959 and 1978, trail-related activities consistently rank among the ten most popular outdoor recreation activities. Historically, trails in the United States are not the result of conscious recreation planning decisions. Consequently, many trail routes pass over private property or along public rights-of-way and are subject to disruption and environmental degradation as development threats grow. This susceptibility is of particular concern as public interest in trails continues to grow at a rapid rate.
(Lawrence Klar and Jean Kavanagh)

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.
(Edward Abbey)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 310

2012-11-05T00:03:00.001+07:00

The secret of success is to be ready when your opportunity comes.
(Benjamin Disraeli)

It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up.
(Vince Lombardi)

You can have more than you've got, because you can become more than you are.
(Jim Rohn)

Single minded concentration toward your major goal gives you a sense of power, purpose and self-direction.
(Anonymous)

When the sun's behind the mountain and the frost is in the air. We're up and off and hiking on our way. We don't know where we're going and we don't supremely care. But we'll be there when the evening ends the day. Up the rocky slopes we clamber and then down the other side. Through forests and across the rocky streams. Through a land of bright enchantment where the vision opens wide. And we find the wide horizon of our dreams.
(Joseph Hazard)

We emerge then, with some of the philosophy of the ?long trail. ' Basically the formula is simple. You start with a geological feature, such as a mountain range, that is not too highly developed yet close enough to the people that will use it. You clear a trail along it for recreational use, and mark the route with some standard marking. You build simple overnight shelters close to a supply of good, natural drinking water, and protect the land nearby so that you can keep the kind of trail you want. You tell the people about it and give them a guidebook to help them plan a safe and comfortable journey. The area encompassing a long trail may be too long and narrow to be managed efficiently by one single organization or agency, and a cooperative program of many groups may be needed.
(Stan Murray)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 309

2012-11-04T00:03:00.001+07:00

If you have a job without aggravations, you don't have a job.
(Malcolm Forbes)

It isn't where you began that counts, it's where you end that matters.
(Anonymous)

He who cannot forgive others destroys a bridge over which he himself must pass
(George Herbert)

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.
(William Feather)

People are like stars... we all have our own special light that shines from within. Sometimes we find our light to be dim and we struggle to shine... but that is when we need the light shed from the other stars to help us light our path once again. A true light that comes from within, from our divine Maker is so brilliant that it penetrates into the souls of the other stars onto which it shines, leaving its impression for eternity. Are you shining for someone today?
(Anonymous)

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.
(Edward Abbey)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 308

2012-11-03T00:03:00.001+07:00

There is no security on this Earth, there is only opportunity.
(General Douglas MacArthur)

How people treat you is their Karma. How you respond is yours
(Wayne Dyer)

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
(G. K. Chesterton)

To build your confidence, repeat over and over, ?I feel happy! I feel healthy! Feel terrific!?
(Anonymous)

I'll tell you my vision. I'd like for most Americans to be able to reach a trail within walking distance of their home and work place. I would like us all to have available a significant natural corridor where we can stroll, exercise, or socialize with friends. I would like to see the National Trails System be as myriad and diverse as the American people. I would like to see us being committed to preserving enough significant corridors that we could have a trail system that is reflective of various communities of interest so we are not confused by some as serving a single activity group.
(William Spitzer)

The first priority for trail work is to correct truly unsafe situations. This could mean repairing impassable washouts along a cliff, or removing blow down from a steep section of a pack stock trail. The second priority is to correct things causing significant trail damage erosion, sedimentation, and off-site trampling, for instance. The third priority is to restore the trail to the planned design standard. This means that the ease of finding and traveling the trail matches the design specifications for the recreational setting and target user. Actions range from simply adding ?reassurance markers' to full-blown reconstruction of eroded tread or failed structures. Whatever the priority, doing maintenance when the need is first noticed will help prevent more severe and costly damage later.
(Woody Hesselbarth)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 307

2012-11-02T00:03:00.001+07:00

Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.
(Sam Brown)

The future doesn't get better by hope, it gets better by plan
(Jim Rohn)

have failed over and over again - that is why I succeed.
(Michael Jordan)

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
(Robert F. Kennedy)

The Long Cruise was finished. Already it seemed like a vivid dream, through sunshine, shadow, and rain. Already I knew that many times I would want to be back again On the cloud-high hills where the whole world lies below and far away. By the wind-worn cairn where admiring eyes first welcome newborn day. To walk once more where the white clouds sail, far from the city clutter. And drink a toast to the Long High Trail in clear, cold mountain water. Beside me as I stood there, happy yet sad, was another weather beaten sign, on a post held up by a heap of gathered stones.
(Earl Shaffer)

If any of my sons are ever called upon to serve their country in time of war, I hope they will have a squad leader like I have. A true soldier, he's tough and demanding yet always fair. He cares about his squad. He sets high standards and demands that we meet them. He tells us what we do good and encourages us to keep our stuff straight. And he tells us what's screwed up and how to fix it. He knows as much about us and our families as is humanly possible. He truly cares. We trust him and are confident in his ability to lead us in combat. If he says 'follow me' we will not hesitate. That's what leadership is all about.
(Anonymous)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 306

2012-11-01T00:03:00.001+07:00

People ignore what you say. They are only concerned with what you do.
(Anonymous)

Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid.
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
(Victor Hugo)

Self-confidence comes naturally when your inner life and your outer life are in harmony.
(Anonymous)

I have a low opinion of books; they are but piles of stone set up to show travelers where other minds have been, or at least signal smokes to call attention. No amount of word making will ever make a single soul to know these mountains. As well to seek to warm the naked and frostbitten by lectures on caloric and pictures of flame. One day's exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books. See how willingly Nature poses herself upon photographer's plates. No earthy chemicals are so sensitive as those of the human soul. All that is required is exposure, and purity of material.
(John Muir)

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. In climbing, always take note of difficulties along the way; for as you go up, you can observe them. Coming down, you will no longer see them, but you will know they are there if you have observed them well. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.
(Ren? Daumal)

Think Quote, Year 02, Day 305

2012-10-31T00:03:00.001+07:00

In the long run, we only hit what we aim at.
(Henry David Thoreau)

Intensity of purpose and commitment to a single goal or objective builds yourself-confidence
(Anonymous)

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
(Abraham Lincoln)

The wonderful thing about the future, it shall arrive with or without us!
(Anonymous)

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.
(Andre Malraux, Man's Hope)

Well, I'm telling them two things. One is that, look, this is going to be something when the American people realize - once it's passed - that, A, it does take care of preexisting conditions; B, you're insurance rates aren't going to skyrocket; C, the insurance companies aren't going to be running the show like they were before; D, you're going to be in a position where you can keep your insurance that you have. That once the American public realizes that, you're going to get a reward for this. They're going to be rewarded.
(Joe Biden)

Walking has been one of the constellations in the starry sky of human culture, a constellation whose three stars are the body, the imagination, and the wide-open world, and though all three exist independently, it is the lines drawn between them drawn by the act of walking for cultural purposes that makes them a constellation. Constellations are not natural phenomena but cultural impositions; the lines drawn between stars are like paths worn by the imagination of those who have gone before. This constellation called walking has a history, the history trod out by all those poets and philosophers and insurrection Aries, by jaywalkers, streetwalkers, pilgrims, tourists, hikers, mountaineers, but whether it has a future depends on whether those connecting paths are traveled still.
(Rebecca Solnit)