Gary Snyder Quotes

I recalled when I worked in the woods and the bars of Madras, Oregon. That short-haired joy and roughness – America – your stupidity. I could almost love you again.

Beware of anything that promises freedom or enlightenment – traps for eager and clever fools – a dog has a keener nose – every creature in a cave can justify himself. Three-fourths of philosophy and literature is the talk of people trying to convince themselves that they really like the cage they were tricked into entering.

Down for a new radio, to Ross Lake, and back up. Three days walking. Strange how unmoved this place leaves one; neither articulate or worshipful; rather the pressing need to look within and adjust the mechanism of perception.

In ten thousand years the Sierras Will be dry and dead, home of the scorpion. Ice-scratched slabs and bent trees. No paradise, no fall, Only the weathering land The wheeling sky, Man, with his Satan Scouring the chaos of the mind. Oh Hell!

A clear, attentive mind Has no meaning but that Which sees is truly seen.

I cannot remember things I once read A few friends, but they are in cities. Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup Looking down for miles Through high still air.