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John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes

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Famous John Burroughs Quotes

“The universe is so unhuman, that is, it goes its way with so little thought of man. He is but an incident, not an end. We must adjust our notions to the discovery that things are not shaped to him, but that he is shaped to them. The air was not made for his lungs, but he has lungs because there is air; the light was not created for his eye, but he has eyes because there is light. All the forces of nature are going their own way; man avails himself of them, or catches a ride as best he can. If he keeps his seat, he prospers; if he misses his hold and falls, he is crushed.”

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Book:The Light of Day (Volume 11); Religious Discussions and Criticisms from the Naturalist's Point of View
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“Science is a capital or fund perpetually reinvested; it accumulates, rolls up, is carried forward by every new man. Every man of science has all the science before him to go upon, to set himself up in business with. What an enormous sum Darwin availed himself of and reinvested! Not so in literature; to every poet, to every artist, it is still the first day of creation, so far as the essentials of his task are concerned. Literature is not so much a fund to be reinvested as it is a crop to be ever new-grown.”

MenFirstsArtStillsScienceArtistLiteratureCreationPoetEssentialsConcernedTasksEvery ManEnormousFundCrops
Book:The writings of John Burroughs
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“The rocks have a history; gray and weatherworn, they are veterans of many battles; they have most of them marched in the ranks of vast stone brigades during the ice age; they have been torn from the hills, recruited from the mountaintops, and marshaled on the plains and in the valleys; and now the elemental war is over, there they lie waging a gentle but incessant warfare with time and slowly, oh, so slowly, yielding to its attacks!”

Has BeensWarAgeScienceLyingRocksBattleStonesIceHillsGentleGrayValleysWarfareTornVeteranElementalsIncessantIce Age
Book:John Burroughs' America: Selections from the Writings of the Naturalist
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“Natural history is a matter of observation; it is a harvest which you gather when and where you find it growing. Birds and squirrels and flowers are not always in season, but philosophy we have always with us. It is a crop which we can grow and reap at all times and in all places and it has its own value and brings its own satisfaction.”

MatterPhilosophyScienceValuesGrowsNaturalGrowingFlowerBirdSeasonsSatisfactionObservationAll TimeHarvestCropsReapSquirrelsNatural History
Book:Under the Apple-Trees
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“IT is reported of Margaret Fuller that she said she accepted the universe. "Gad, she'd better!" retorted Carlyle. Carlyle himself did not accept the universe in a very whole-hearted manner. Looking up at the midnight stars, he exclaimed: "A sad spectacle! If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly; if they be not inhabited, what a waste of space!"”

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Book:Accepting the universe
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“[Theodore Roosevelt] was a naturalist on the broadest grounds, uniting much technical knowledge with knowledge of the daily lives and habits of all forms of wild life. He probably knew tenfold more natural history than all the presidents who had preceded him, and, I think one is safe in saying, more human history also.”

ThinkingHumansFormSciencePresidentNaturalKnowledgeHistoryHabitSafeDaily LifeHuman HistoryNaturalistUnitingNatural HistoryTheodoreTechnical KnowledgeWild Life
Author:John Burroughs
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“One summer day, while I was walking along the country road on the farm where I was born, a section of the stone wall opposite me, and not more than three or four yards distant, suddenly fell down. Amid the general stillness and immobility about me the effect was quite startling. ... It was the sudden summing up of half a century or more of atomic changes in the material of the wall. A grain or two of sand yielded to the pressure of long years, and gravity did the rest.”

YearsLongTwoCountryScienceThreeBornHalfFourEffectsCenturyMaterialsWallWalkingSummerStonesOppositesPressureSandFarmsAtomsStillnessGravityGrainYardsSectionsSummer DaysHalf A CenturyStone WallsSumming UpCountry Roads
Author:John Burroughs
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