One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples this world pulls.

The line contrasts institutional religion (“temples”) with lived ethical action (“practicing kindness”), suggesting that compassion enacted in solitude or away from social recognition has greater moral weight than grand edifices or formal piety. “In the wilderness” implies both literal remoteness and a figurative space outside convention—where kindness is chosen without reward, audience, or pressure. The phrasing aligns with a Beat-era suspicion of institutions and a spiritual emphasis on direct experience and humane conduct. If authentically Kerouac, it would fit his recurring tension between religious longing and distrust of organized forms, valuing spontaneous, embodied mercy over public symbols of sanctity.