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Great Lakes Quotes

Browse 30 quotes about Great Lakes.

Great Lakes Quotes

“They contain round archipelagoes of romantic isles, even as the Polynesian waters do; in large part, are shored by two great contrasting nations, as the Atlantic is; the furnish long maritime approaches to out numerous territorial colonies from the East, dotted all round their banks; here and there are frowned upon by batteries, and by the goat-like craggy guns of lofty Mackinaw; they have heard the fleet thunderings of naval victories; at intervals, they yield their beaches to wild barbarians, whose red painted faces flash from out their peltry wig-wams; for leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient and unentered forest, where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines of kings in Gothic genealogies; those same woods harboring wild Afric beasts of prey, and silken creatures whose exported furs give robes to Tartart Emperors; they mirror the paved capitals of Buffalo and Cleveland, as well as Winnebago villages; they float alike the full-rigged merchant ship, the armed cruiser of the State, the steamer, and the beech canoe; they are swept by Borean and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave; they know what shipwrecks are, for out of sight of land, however inland, they have drowned full many a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew.”

Great Lakes
Book:Moby Dick
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“They are the largest collection of freshwater lakes in the world. They border eight U.S. states and the Canadian Providence of Ontario and at time have supplied water to one-third of Canadians and one-seventh of Americans. They're vaster than the entire New England region and define beachfront to many people who have never seen an ocean.”

TravelMidwestGreat Lakes
Book:The 10 Best of Everything Families: An Ultimate Guide for Travelers
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“HOWARD TANNER WAS NEVER BIG ON THE IDEA OF VALUING NATIVE species simply because they are native. His priority in the 1960s was to convert the lakes from a resource primarily managed as a commercial fishery into a sportsmen’s haven, and native species just didn’t fit his bill—and they still don’t. “I doubt if the charter boat captains can sustain a fishery on lake trout,” he said. He called trolling for native walleye “about the most boring thing you can do.” “Like bringing in a wet sock,” he said.”

SalmonGreat LakesCohoIntroduced SpeciesChinook
Book:The Death and Life of the Great Lakes
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“Aki, with a sharp intake of breath, found herself stepping forward, drawn to the pit as if by some ancestral magnetism. Beside her, the others mirrored her actions, their gasps creating a symphony of awe that filled the clearing. They stood at the brink, peering down, their eyes wide, their mouths open, their faces reflecting a mixture of reverence and wonder. For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath—the sounds of the forest stilled, the leaves of the trees pausing in their rustling whispers, even the air itself waiting in hushed anticipation. Then, as if the pause were too profound to last, the forest sounds returned, but the onlookers remained motionless, transfixed. Aki's heart raced as she reached out tentatively, her fingers hovering just above the copper, feeling the warmth that radiated from it. It was not just metal; it was a piece of history, a fragment of the earth's untold story.”

MiningGreat LakesLake Superior
Book:Great Water: The Lost Mines of Lake Superior
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“When I grew up in the early '90s, the new World Wide Web felt like a gimmick, and I had no idea of the changes in store. In the summers, I'd backpack through Europe, follow the Grateful Dead. I had a car and a tent and traveled around the Great Lakes and out West. Jack Kerouac was my guiding light, his 'On the Road' a sacred text.”

WorldIdeasLightFeltCarGrewSummerGrew UpEuropeGratefulSacredWestWideStoresNo IdeaLakesNew WorldTraveledTentsGimmicksWorld Wide WebGuiding LightGreat LakesSacred Texts
Author:Tony D'Souza
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“Here in the Great Lakes region, a fourth year in a row of declining water levels has caused millions of dollars in losses for shipping companies, marinas and other businesses and prompted further restrictions on future water withdrawals for expanding suburbs. "A lot of people just can't believe that we may be running out of water, living this close to the Great Lakes," said Sarah Nerenberg, a water engineer with the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, which conducted the study on shortages.”

PeopleYearsBelieveMaySaidRunningWaterLossLevelsCompanyMillionsStudyDollarsEnvironmentalPlanningLakesRegionsFourthEngineersExpandingRestrictionSuburbsShortageWithdrawalIllinoisShippingGreat LakesFourth Year
Author:Timothy Egan
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“The insecticides kill the black flies, but also destroy much of the food chain for the bird, fish, and animal life which also inhabit those regions. The fish of the Great Lakes are laced with mercury from industrial plants, and fluoride from aluminum plants poisons the land and the people. Sewage from the population centers is mixed with PCBs and PBS in the watershed of the great lakes and the Finger Lakes, and the water is virtually nowhere safe for any living creatures.”

PeopleBlackWaterAnimalLandSafeCreaturesBirdPlantFingersEnvironmentalPopulationFishesChainsPoisonLakesRegionsPollutionLiving CreaturesMercuryAnimal LifeFood ChainAluminumSewageWatershedsPbsGreat LakesInsecticidesFluoride
Book:All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
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“I had a lot of great lakes of ignorance that I was up against, I would write what I knew in almost like islands that were rising up out of the oceans. Then I would take time off and read, sometimes for months, then I would write more of what I knew, and saw what I could see, as much as the story as I could see. And then at a certain point I had to write out what I thought was the plot because it was so hard to keep it all together in my head. And then I started to write in a more linear way.”

WayWritingSometimesHardStoriesTogetherCertainSawsIgnoranceMonthsOceanIslandsRisingLakesPlotTake TimeLinearTime OffRising UpGreat Lakes
Author:Rebecca Miller
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“I grew up in a theater family. My father was a regional theater classical repertory producer. He created Shakespeare festivals. He produced all of Shakespeare's plays, mostly in Shakespeare festivals in Ohio. One of them, the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, is still going. So I grew up not wanting to be an actor, not wanting to go into the family business.”

StillsPlayActorsFatherGrewGrew UpTheaterProducersLakesFestivalsOhioClevelandGreat LakesShakespeare's PlaysTheater Family
Author:John Lithgow
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“The States which form the northern border of the United States westward from the Great Lakes to the Pacific coast include an area several times larger than France and could contain ten Englands and still have room to spare.”

StillsStatesFormUnitedRoomsUnited StatesEconomyTenAreasEnglandFranceBordersLakesSparesCoastPacificGreat Lakes
Book:The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States
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“Indeed, if I understand this global-warming business correctly, the danger is that the waters will rise and drown the whole of Massachusetts, New York City, Long Island, the California coast and a few big cities on the Great Lakes - in other words, every Democratic enclave will be wiped out leaving only the solid Republican heartland. Politically speaking, for conservatives there's no downside to global warming.”

IfsLongWholeBigsPoliticalPoliticsUnderstandingWaterBusinessCitiesDemocracyDangerNew YorkRepublicanDemocraticLeavingConservativeCaliforniaIslandsRisingGlobal WarmingLakesNew York CityCoastMassachusettsBig CitiesLong IslandGreat LakesCalifornia Coast
Author:Mark Steyn
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