In the vast expanse of literary treasures celebrating nature's grandeur, few voices resonate as profoundly as that of John Muir. A luminary figure in the realm of environmentalism, Muir's eloquent prose and profound insights have left an indelible mark on the collective consciousness of humanity. Through his timeless quotes, encapsulated under the banner of "Quotes By John Muir," he beckons us to embark on a journey of discovery and reverence for the natural world.
Muir's words serve as windows into the soul of the wilderness, offering glimpses of its boundless beauty and timeless wisdom. Whether extolling the virtues of mountain solitude or waxing poetic about the symphony of life in a forest glade, his writings evoke a sense of wonder and awe that transcends generations.
Quotes By John Muir (2024)
John Muir, the renowned naturalist and conservationist, left behind a legacy of wisdom and reverence for nature through his eloquent words. His quotes inspire awe for the beauty of the wilderness and advocate for its preservation for future generations to enjoy. Here are unique and profound quotes by John Muir:
"The sun shines not on us but in us."
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
"The mountains are calling and I must go."
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings."
"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks."
"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness."
"I never saw a discontented tree."
"Keep close to Nature's heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."
"The power of imagination makes us infinite."
"Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees."
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."
"Going to the woods is going home."
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
"Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another."
"Earth has no sorrow that earth can not heal."
"Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt."
"Most people are on the world, not in it."
"Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures."
"The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark."
"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
"Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life."
"The rivers flow not past, but through us."
"There is a love of wild nature in everybody."
"The battle for conservation must go on endlessly. It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong."
"Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it."
"I am learning to live close to the lives of my friends without ever seeing them. No miles of any measurement can separate your soul from mine."
"Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars."
"None of Nature's landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild."
"I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature's loveliness."
"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike."
"The mountains are fountains of men as well as of rivers, of glaciers, of fertile soil."
"Another glorious day, the air as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue."
"The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us."
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees."
"Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world."
"In God's wildness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh, unblighted, unredeemed wilderness."
"The world, we are told, was made especially for man - a presumption not supported by all the facts."
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools."
"I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do."
"Tug on anything at all and you'll find it connected to everything else in the universe."
"One day's exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books."
"Nothing truly wild is unclean."
"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity."
"I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."
"I'd rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than in church thinking about the mountains."
"Wilderness is not only a haven for native plants and animals but it is also a refuge from society. Its a place to go to hear the wind and little else, see the stars and the galaxies, smell the pine trees, feel the cold water, touch the sky and the ground at the same time, listen to coyotes, eat the fresh snow, walk across the desert sands, and realize why its good to go outside of the city and the suburbs. Fortunately, there is wilderness just outside the limits of the cities and the suburbs in most of the United States, especially in the West."
"The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see."
"I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news."
"How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!"
"Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life."
"Keep close to Nature's heart, and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."
"Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer."
"Rivers flow not past, but through us; tingling, vibrating, exciting every cell and fiber in our bodies, making them sing and glide."
"The gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry, and all that is spiritual."
"To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world."
"There is a love of wild nature in everybody, an ancient mother-love showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties."
"The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing."
"The battle for conservation cannot be limited to the winning of new conquests. Like liberty itself, conservation must be fought for unceasingly to protect gains already achieved."
"When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world."
"Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."
"The battle we have fought, and are still fighting, for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong."
"In God's wildness lies the hope of the world—the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness."
"Rocks and waters, etc., are words of God, and so are men. We all flow from one fountain Soul. All are expressions of one Love."
"When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty."
"There is not a 'fragment' in all nature, for every relative fragment of one thing is a full harmonious unit in itself."
"Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods."
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."
"Wilderness is a necessity."
"Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures. All scars she heals, whether in rocks or water or sky or hearts."
"The world's big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark."
"The mountains are fountains of men as well as of rivers, of glaciers, of fertile soil. The great poets, philosophers, prophets, able men whose thoughts and deeds have moved the world, have come down from the mountains."
"Earth has no sorrow that earth can't heal."
"The world is big, and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark."
"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."
"The power of prayer is not in what we ask but in what we receive from God."
"These temple-destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar."
"The sunsets of wonderful colour, flame and peace, and the great golden moonlit nights, the sunrises and sunbeams of days and weeks, the voices of streams and birds, and winds and bees, and the lovely gentleness of things, all the immensity and glory of God's wildness."
"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising."
"The morning stars still sing together, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful every day."
"Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality."
"The battle for conservation will go on endlessly. It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong."
"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."
"The beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people."
"In God's wildness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh, unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware."
"Wilderness is not only a haven for native plants and animals but it is also a refuge from society."
"The battle we have fought, and are still fighting for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong."
"The power of the imagination makes us infinite."
"Wilderness is a necessity… there must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls."
"Most people are on the world, not in it — have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them — undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate."
"The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."
"No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty. Whether as seen carving the lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars, or planning the movements of water, or gardening - still all is Beauty!"
"The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing."
"In God's wildness lies the hope of the world — the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware."
"The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing."
"There is a love of wild nature in everybody, an ancient mother-love ever showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties."
"The world, we are told, was made especially for man—a presumption not supported by all the facts."
"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."
"One should go to the woods for safety, if for nothing else."
"Rocks and waters, etc., are words of God and so are men. We all flow from one fountain Soul. All are expressions of one Love."
"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere."
"The power of prayer is not in what we ask but in what we receive from God."
John Muir's timeless words resonate with a deep reverence for the natural world, encapsulating the profound connection between humanity and the environment. Through his eloquent prose, Muir instills a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to embrace the beauty and majesty of the wilderness.
His quotes serve as guiding lights, illuminating the path towards a deeper understanding of our place within the intricate web of life on Earth. As we ponder Muir's reflections on the mountains, forests, and rivers, we are reminded of the importance of preserving these sacred landscapes for future generations to cherish and enjoy.
