“I have often had a retrospective vision where everything in my past life seems to fall with significance into logical sequence.”

“Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit.”

“Myths and creeds are heroic struggles to comprehend the truth in the world.”

“Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.”

“In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular... sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice.”

“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”

“To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.”

“There are worlds of experience beyond the world of the aggressive man, beyond history, and beyond science. The moods and qualities of nature and the revelations of great art are equally difficult to define; we can grasp them only in the depths of our perceptive spirit.”

“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.”

“Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.”

“To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.”