I Wish I Said That

"The interstate system was not intended to provide a large and un-reimbursed measure of benefits to the billboard industry, whose structures tend to distract from the beauty and safety of the routes they line."

"Billboards are acts of aggression against which the public is entitled, as a matter of privacy, to be protected."

Here in the United States we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping grounds, we pollute the air, destroy forests, exterminate fishes, birds, and mammals---not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous landscapes with hideous advertisements."

The travel industry needs to be progressive, both in marketing, and in protecting what is really at the heart of a state's or an area's appeal. We want a billboard-free landscape, and that is what vacationers say they want when they flock here. You won't find a travel industry person in the state who doesn't agree with them."

"Billboards represent less than two per cent of total advertising in the United States. I cannot believe that the free-enterprise system would be irreparably damaged if they were abolished. Who is in favor of them? Only the people who make money out of them."

"Almost everywhere you drive in the United States, outdoor advertising has been propped up to block the sight of sunsets, prairies, mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers, and our greatest natural treasure: trees. And when a number of billboards are seen at once, a sickening synergy occurs, which lends an unmistakable junkyard motif to what used to be pristine natural vistas."

"I have been in the billboard business for 25 years....[I] see billboard companies becoming their own worst enemies.... Why can't the industry regulate itself and be proud of each sign it owns. In fact, we may find that money spent on lobbyists might go further by spending it on landscaping and cleaning up the locations."

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has."

I think that I shall never see / A billboard as lovely as a tree. / Indeed, unless the billboards fall / I'll never see a tree at all."