Quotes from Gary Snyder on nature

“It comes again to the understanding of the subtle but critical difference of meaning between nature and wild. Nature, they say, is the subject of science. Nature can be deeply probed, as in microbiology. The wild is not to be made subject or object in this manner; to be approached it must be admitted from within, as a quality intrinsic to who we are. Nature is ultimately in no way endangered; wilderness is. The wild is indestructible, but we might not see the wild.” The Practice of the Wild, page 181.

“To know the spirit of a place is to realize that you are a part of a part and that the whole is made of parts, each of which is whole. You start with the part you are whole in.” The Practice of the Wild, page 38.

“The pressures of growing populations and the powers of entrenched (but fragile, confused, and essentially leaderless) economic systems warp the likelihood of any of us seeing clearly. Our perception of how entrenched they are may also be something of a delusion.” The Practice of the Wild, page 36.