Bushcraft Quotes

[Millbilly]

Alright, alright!

"I learned how much of what we think to be necessary is superfluous; I learned how few things are essential, and how essential those things really are"

Bernard Ferguson, Chindits, Burma 1943

 

[zackerty]

Everything is edible, even the things that are not...
Those kill you...
Learn the difference...

 

[Stuart]

"I learned how much of what we think to be necessary is superfluous; I learned how few things are essential, and how essential those things really are"

Bernard Ferguson, Chindits, Burma 1943

thats one of my favorites, as concise a description Bushcraft as I think is possible.

my other favorite though considerably lengthier quote is a Thoreau classic:

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it"

Henry David Thoreau - (1817 – 1862) - Walden or Life in the Woods

 

[Millbilly]

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it"

Henry David Thoreau - (1817 – 1862) - Walden or Life in the Woods

I'd never heard that one, and i like it

He's a writer, is he not? I like his outlook, and should probabley seek out some of his books.

Thanks

 

[redcollective]

I'd never heard that one, and i like it

He's a writer, is he not? I like his outlook, and should probabley seek out some of his books.

Thanks

Here - have some for free: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/t#a54

 

[Nightwalker]

Some great ones folks!

Take only photos, leave only footprints. Or something like that.....

I believe it was..
"Take only memories, leave only footprints." - Ray Mears
I not entirely sure if the saying originates from him, but I've heard him say it a good few times.

 

[Wayland]

Heard this one recently but can't remember where.

- The first thing to go wrong with any plan is of course "The plan".

 

[janiepopps]

There is one about Yellow Snow................... nope its gone.

 

[sxmolloy]

"A blunt blade is more dangerous than a sharp one" - The One (Mr. Mears).

 

[C_Claycomb]

Do not mess with the forces of Nature , for thou art small and biodegradable !



"If you leave the Christian Bible outside, eventually the wind and the rain will destroy it. My bible IS the wind and the rain."
attributed to an unnamed Native American woman

 

[Graham_S]

not bushcrafty, but my favorite quote of all time is this;
"outside of a dog, a book is mans best friend. inside a dog, it's too dark to read."
Groucho Marx.

 

[Millbilly]

Here - have some for free: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/t#a54

Why thank you sir

 

[Nightwalker]

"If you leave the Christian Bible outside, eventually the wind and the rain will destroy it. My bible IS the wind and the rain."
attributed to an unnamed Native American woman

I like that one.

 

[Seagull]

Always make two plans, this gives a yet more accurate idea of , just how far reality has diverged from aspiration.

Ceeg

 

[Hellz]

Do not mess with the forces of Nature , for thou art small and biodegradable !

I like that one

Hellz

 

[WhichDoctor]

I like this one
|
I
V

 

[Ben Trout]

Two favourites of mine:

Wood is great. You get warm cutting, you get warm stacking it and you get warm burning it.
My Grandad taught me that, don't know how old it is.

There are no problems, only challenges.

I've got a few more now, thanks peoples.

 

[Burnt Ash]

Bushcraft Quotes​

I thought we could start a comprehensive list of bushcraft quotes; I'll start with the first one..

"Bushcraft is what you carry in your mind and your muscle." - Ray Mears

There are lots of useful little quotes and aphorisms that help us calibrate our values and sense of place in the world. Here are a few of my favourites.

On leadership: "The tone of the unit comes from the top." R.A.G. Stokes (my old biology teacher)

On self reliance: "Sonny, you kin reckon it dead sure that's something wrong about a thing that don't explain itself; an one explanation's as bad as two mistakes - it don't fool anybody worth speaking of, 'cept yerself. You find the remedy; you can leave other folks put up the excuses." The old transport-rider/prospector 'Rocky', from Jock of the Bushveld, by Sir Percy FitzPatrick
(1907)

On navigation: "Lost? I ain't never bin lost! Powerful confused for a few weeks, maybe ...but never lost!" Some old film (or Grizzly Adams, possibly)

Burnt Ash

 

[Pablo]

Not exactly a quote but part of a poem by Byron. Also part of my signature.

To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude, 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores untold.

Pablo

 

[sam_acw]

There are people with some great signatures on here, a lot of which are bushcrafty. Mine is my Dad's only advice on using a penknife (he still says it to this day).
I think there is a LOTR quote i've seen

"Not all who wander are lost"