Wise Words on the Value of Wilderness

Fridtjof Nansen was an accomplished Arctic explorer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, skiing across Greenland and trying to make it to the North Pole on an epic journey across the ice. On the value of the wilderness and travel, he said:

"The first great thing is to find yourself, and for that you need solitude and contemplation, at least sometimes. I tell you deliverance will not come from the rushing, noisy centers of civilization. It will come from the lonely places."

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress and is in the public domain.