Quotessence
Home / Topics / Arctic Quotes

Arctic Quotes

Browse 175 quotes about Arctic.

Related topics

IceSeaRefugeYearsClimate ChangeClimateMeltingWildlifeOceanOilPeopleDrillingEarthWorldBearsEnergyGlobal WarmingIfsKnowsThinking

Arctic Quotes

“Have you heard of the illness hysteria siberiana? Try to imagine this: You're a farmer, living all alone on the Siberian tundra. Day after day you plow your fields. As far as the eye can see, nothing. To the north, the horizon, to the east, the horizon, to the south, to the west, more of the same. Every morning, when the sun rises in the east, you go out to work in your fields. When it's directly overhead, you take a break for lunch. When it sinks in the west, you go home to sleep. And then one day, something inside you dies. Day after day you watch the sun rise in the east, pass across the sky, then sink in the west, and something breaks inside you and dies. You toss your plow aside and, your head completely empty of thought, begin walking toward the west. Heading toward a land that lies west of the sun. Like someone, possessed, you walk on, day after day, not eating or drinking, until you collapse on the ground and die. That's hysteria siberiana.”

MadnessAloneEmptinessArcticFarmerSiberiaHysteria Siberiana
Book:South of the Border, West of the Sun
Create image

“The intensity of my grief hits the mountains across Eclipse Sound, and then echoes throughout Arctic. There’s nobody around. I can barely see the town below the hill, nestled within the valley of barren tundra, across from the tiny airport, my only access to the south. I’m alone amidst this desolate landscape and there’s nowhere to hide. No trees or buildings or distractions. It’s just me in the depths of my suffering and all my faults and mistakes of the past are exposed underneath the spotlight of the midnight sun.”

SufferingRelationshipsGriefLetting GoGrief And LossLight And DarknessArcticGrief And Loss QuotesMidnight SunTundra
Book:See What Flowers
Create image

“To face a life in these extremes, these men must live to a code of machismo that would wither the men of many cultures. Is it somehow required that, to hold your head high as a man among men, you must treat your life with such casual abandon? Or, I wondered, is it more than that? Is it tied to their overall spiritual view of life? By walking the thin line cast by the shadow of death, do they come to know life with an intimacy that the timid cannot?”

MenBeautifulSpiritualCodeArctic
Book:North to the Light: A Year in the Arctic Ice
Create image

“Whenever I met a collared lemming on a summer day and took its stare I would think: Here is a tough animal. Here is a valuable life. In a heedless moment, years from now, will I remember more machinery here than mind? If it could tell me of its will to survive, would I think of biochemistry, or would I think of the analogous human desire? If it could speak of the time since the retreat of the ice, would I have the patience to listen?”

ListeningPatienceAnimalsEcologyArcticHuman Desire
Book:Arctic Dreams
Create image

“The future says: Dear mortals; I know you are busy with your colourful lives; I have no wish to waste the little time that remains On arguments and heated debates; But before I can appear Please, close your eyes, sit still And listen carefully To what I am about to say; I haven't happened yet, but I will. I can't pretend it's going to be Business as usual. Things are going to change. I'm going to be unrecognisable. Please, don't open your eyes, not yet. I'm not trying to frighten you. All I ask is that you think of me Not as a wish or a nightmare, but as a story You have to tell yourselves - Not with an ending In which everyone lives happily ever after, Or a B-movie apocalypse, But maybe starting with the line 'To be continued...' And see what happens next. Remember this; I am not Written in stone But in time - So please don't shrug and say What can we do? It's too late, etc, etc, etc. Dear mortals, You are such strange creatures With your greed and your kindness, And your hearts like broken toys; You carry fear with you everywhere Like a tiny god In its box of shadows. You love festivals and music And good food. You lie to yourselves Because you're afraid of the dark. But the truth is: you are in my hands And I am in yours. We are in this together, Face to face and eye to eye; We're made for each other. Now those of you who are still here; Open your eyes and tell me what you see.”

PoetryFutureClimate ChangeArcticHigh Arctic
Author:Nick Drake
Create image

“With thousands of years of history frozen in time, it's no wonder that many southerners like me romanticize the north as a place where we can freeze our former selves, thaw, and then bloom anew. Here it’s just you, the land, and your thoughts, and you can't leave until you've wrestled with yourself and emerged a survivor. But then again, the light is much more intense up here and everything looks different because of it. The sun hasn’t set in a couple of months, and you can see things much more clearly when it is light all of the time.”

AcceptanceSelf DiscoveryMental IllnessCanadaLight And DarknessForgiveness QuotesArcticNorth
Book:See What Flowers
Create image

“Just as I’m about to continue walking along the shoreline, the left third of the iceberg breaks off suddenly and crashes violently, like a high-rise apartment building imploding in the heart of the city. Tears roll down my face uncontrollably as I watch the two distinct halves of the iceberg drift further and further apart from each other. It’s devastating to watch something that seems so strong and unbreakable crumble in an instant. Even more devastating is the feeling that there’s nothing I can do about it.”

LoveRelationshipsAcceptanceLetting GoForgivenessMental IllnessForgiveness QuotesArcticIceberg
Book:See What Flowers
Create image

“My children tell stories of the ancient world, the old world. They search for Little People on the tundra, little beings not taller than a human hand. They tell stories of strong men who stayed underwater for days. The strong men cupped their hands against the ocean floor, breathing with pockets of air made by their cupped hands. My children try to forget death by telling these old stories. They’ve carried dead bodies to the graveyard with their own youthful hands.”

DeathHealingIndigenousArcticIndigenous PeoplesInupiaqLittle Peoples
Book:Sivulliq: Ancestor
Create image

“On an idyllic summer day, we walked through the meadows and hillsides, sitting in circles, laughing and filling sacks of cottongrass, salmonberries, crowberries, cranberries, mountain alder, northern golden rod, and rose hip roots. We collected cloudberry tea and Labrador tea, and wild celery. The Elders walked together, laughing, talking of the old days when they would travel to the Messenger Feasts, across the channel to Siberia, or south to trade in Qikiqtaġruk. We’d mix a dessert of fresh berries and lard, whipping and whipping the lard until fluffy.”

Historical FictionArcticIndigenous PeoplesHealersInupiaqHealing PlantsMessenger FeastsQikiqtagrukTraditional MedicineTraditional Plants
Book:Sivulliq: Ancestor
Create image

“On a larger scale-be it our need for precious metals, hydroelectric power, or marine resources- we will all face the same decisions, feel under the same pressure to perform and produce. We will always be tempted to take a little more, push the land and its limits just a little bit harder. Do one or two birds matter? Will one more mineral mine or a few more drilling platforms alter the delicate balance? No, not on their own. But person by person, decision by decision, year by year, we will either nurture and protect this natural treasure for future generations, or we will not and our world will be profoundly diminished.”

WorldEarthNatural ResourcesArcticPrecious
Book:North to the Night : A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic
Create image

“In ancient times, at this shallow cove, the Koyukon attacked our people. The women fought alongside the men, running half-naked from their homes to show their courage. The Elders took the children into their umiaqs, fleeing to the sea. The Elders shielded the children’s eyes but could not shield their ears, and land went silent. The Elders and children buried the Inupiaq and Koyukon people side-by-side on the stilts of the whalebone, then they journeyed north to begin again.”

Historical FictionIndigenousAlaskaArcticAncestorsIndigenous PeoplesInupiaqWhaleboneBowheadKoyukon
Book:Sivulliq: Ancestor
Create image

“My husband trudged up the ridge, stumbling, but determined. My children and I watched him until he disappeared over the ridge, out of view, vanishing into the abyss. It wasn’t an extraordinary day, not foggy, not stormy, or a bright day. It was grey and cloudy when a good man and a good father walked up to face death like our people have done for a millennia.”

DeathHistorical FictionDeath And DyingIndigenousAlaskaArcticNative American LiteratureInupiaqAlaska Native Literature
Book:Sivulliq: Ancestor
Create image

“Below deck is suffocating, smelling of sweaty, spermy, unwashed armpits, unwashed groins, moldy wood, bilge water, and the green smell of algae, all congealed in thick streams. I’ve learned to sleep by breathing out of my mouth. On deck, we escape the bed bugs biting away at our skin, clicking cockroaches hiding in the shadows, and the rats gnawing away at every cask. I look forward to the cold sea air.”

Historical FictionIndigenousAlaskaArcticNative American LiteratureInupiaqAlaska Native LiteratureYankee WhalersNew Bedford
Book:Sivulliq: Ancestor
Create image

“At the Galapagos Islands, the cook wanted fresh wild pigs. He said we needed fresh meat to last until San Francisco. We tried. We heard pigs squealing on the island, running, large leaves moving as they ran underneath the foliage. Merihim said we’ve no time. So, we killed two large turtles, the biggest I’ve ever seen. The cook dried and cured the meat into jerky.”

Historical FictionSan FranciscoIndigenousAlaskaArcticNative American LiteratureInupiaqAlaska Native LiteratureGalápagos Islands
Book:Sivulliq: Ancestor
Create image

“Gerald and I saw the Azore Islands, Talcahuano, Tumbez, San Francisco, and Nome from afar while the captain and officers rowed to shore for fresh food and fresh whalers. Even at Nome, not two days ago, Gerald and I watched the Alaskan town from the ship. We saw Talcahuano at night, the town alive with lights and torches. We heard music across the water. People celebrated an event on shore. We thought it might be a wedding. We imagined walking the clay, brick roads, ordering crabs and clams near the sea, sampling the local exotic fruits and plants growing in their vibrant colors and prickly skins, and of course, seducing the dark- skinned indigenous women emanating macadamia oil, musk, and leafy air. Merihim laughed at our children’s eyes and said to act like men, not like guttersnipes at a bakery window.”

IndigenousAlaskaArcticNative American LiteratureInupiaqNomeAlaska Native LiteratureAzore IslandsGuttersnipes
Book:Sivulliq: Ancestor
Create image

“Several factors besides skill are more significant in professional writers than in most amateurs. One is love of the surface level of language: the sound of it; the taste of it on the tongue; what it can be made to do in virtuosic passages that exist only for their own sake, like cadenzas in baroque concerti. Writers in love with their tools are not unlike surgeons obsessed with their scalpels, or Arctic sled racers who sleep among their dogs even when they don't have to.”

WritingMadeLanguageSoundSleepLevelsDogTasteSkillsToolsSakeTongueSurfaceSignificantFactorsObsessedPassagesSurgeonsArcticBaroqueRacersScalpels
Book:The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain
Create image

“You can drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, on every continental shelf and atop every hill in America for that matter, and you still won't reverse the fact that our oil production is in permanent decline. We're just sopping up what's left, digging ourselves into a deeper hole.”

StillsMatterFactsAmericaEnergyLeftProductionsDeeperOilHolesAlternativesHillsPermanentDeclineRefugeReverseShelvesWildlifeDiggingDrillsArcticContinentalOil Production
Author:Roscoe Bartlett
Create image

“We thank those Senators, both Republican and Democrat, who stood firm against tremendous pressure from the Bush administration, pro-drilling members of Congress and their allies in the oil industry. They recognize that the budget is an inappropriate place to decide controversial national policy matters like America's energy policy. We urge all members of Congress to remain steadfast in their belief that the vast, unspoiled wilderness of America?s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is more than a line item in the Federal Budget.”

MatterAmericaBeliefEnergyLinesPolicyIndustryRepublicanMembersPressureDemocratCongressOilAdministrationBudgetsFirmUrgesWildernessAlliesRefugeSenatorsItemsWildlifeControversialInappropriateSteadfastArcticDrillingEnergy PolicyOil Industry
Author:Carl Pope
Create image

“Canada regards herself as responsible to all mankind for the peculiar ecological balance that now exists so precariously in the water, ice and land areas of the Arctic archipelago. We do not doubt for a moment that the rest of the world would find us at fault, and hold us liable, should we fail to ensure adequate protection of that environment from pollution or artificial deterioration.”

WorldShouldMomentsWaterDoubtEnvironmentFailingLandMankindBalanceAreasResponsibleRegardFaultsProtectionIceCanadaPeculiarArtificialPollutionAdequateEcologicalLiableArcticDeteriorationEcological Balance
Author:Pierre Trudeau
Create image

“I am delighted, one more time, by the daring of my species and the audacity of our flying machines. There is poetry and music in our technology, a beauty as touching as that of eagle, moss campion, raven or yonder limestone boulder shining under the Arctic sun.”

TechnologySunMachinesShiningSpeciesFlyingMore TimeTouchingDaringEaglesDelightedMossArcticRavensAudacityBouldersPoetry And MusicFlying MachinesLimestone
Book:Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside
Create image

“For instance, the blood of hibernating arctic squirrels may supercool to minus 3 degrees, when it would normally congeal. The supercooled blood still flows, since it remains a liquid, but the slightest disturbance will cause it to freeze, killing the squirrel; therefore, you should not disturb hibernating arctic squirrels.”

ShouldMayStillsCausesBloodDegreesFlowRemainsKillingInstanceLiquidFreezeDisturbanceSquirrelsArcticMinus
Book:Faster Than The Speed Of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation
Create image