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John Muir

John Muir Quotes

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John Muir (April 21, 1838 - December 24, 1914) was an American naturalist, writer, explorer, and environmentalist. Known for his love of nature and advocacy for environmental protection, Muir is considered one of the pioneers of the modern environmental movement.

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Famous John Muir Quotes

“The world, we are told, was made especially for man - a presumption not supported by all the facts... Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation?”

Men World Should Made Facts Values Compassion Creation Humility Vegan Units Stewardship Veganism Presumption Small Parts

Book:The range of light: photographs

Source: The range of light: photographs

“Most people are on the world, not in it.”

People World Adventure Sierra Earth And Nature Yosemite No Sympathy

Book:The Wilderness World of John Muir

Source: The Wilderness World of John Muir

“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 - mountain dwellers who have grown strong there with the forest trees in Nature's workshops.”

Source: The Wilderness World of John Muir

“How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountain-top it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make - leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone - we all dwell in a house of one room - the world with the firmament for its roof - and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track.”

Source: John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

“Although I was four years at the University [of Wisconsin], I did not take the regular course of studies, but instead picked out what I thought would be most useful to me, particularly chemistry, which opened a new world, mathematics and physics, a little Greek and Latin, botany and and geology. I was far from satisfied with what I had learned, and should have stayed longer.”

World Should Years Littles Would Be Science Courses Study Four Should Have Mathematics University Physics Satisfied Greek Latin Chemistry New World Four Years Geology Wisconsin Botany

Book:Essential Muir

Source: Essential Muir

“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.”

World Lying Healing Civilization Wounds Heal Wilderness Harness Wildness Sierra Yosemite

Author:John Muir

“No right way is easy in this rough world. We must risk our lives to save them.”

World Way Life Easy Our Lives Risk Rough Hardship Right Way

Book:The Wilderness World of John Muir

Source: The Wilderness World of John Muir

“C. albus...I think the very loveliest of all the lily family - a spotless soul, plant saint, that every one must love and so be made better. It puts the wildest mountaineer on his good behavior. With this plant the whole world would seem rich though non other existed.”

Thinking World Made Soul Whole Seems Rich Behavior Plant Saint Whole World Lilies Good Behavior

Author:John Muir

“I used to envy the father of our race, dwelling as he did in contact with the new-made fields and plants of Eden; but I do so no more, because I have discovered that I also live in "creation's dawn." The morning stars still sing together, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful every day.”

World Made Stills Together Beautiful Used Father Stars Nature Race Half Beauty Morning Creation Fields Plant Envy Contact Dawn Dwelling Eden

Book:Gentle wilderness: the Sierra Nevada

Source: Gentle wilderness: the Sierra Nevada

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature; he finds it attached to the rest of the world. Variant - When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. Variant - Tug on anything at all and you'll find it connected to everything else in the universe.”

World Trying Universe Nature Picks Connected

Author:John Muir

“All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land or down among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God's eternal beauty and love. So universally true is this, the spot where we chance to be always seems the best.”

Source: John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

“No dogma taught by the present civilization seems to form so insuperable an obstacle in a way of a right understanding of the relations which culture sustains as to wilderness, as that which declares that the world was made especially for the uses of men. Every animal, plant, and crystal controverts it in the plainest terms. Yet it is taught from century to century as something ever new and precious, and in the resulting darkness the enormous conceit is allowed to go unchallenged.”

Men World Way Made Use Seems Earth Form Culture Understanding Term Nature Animal Darkness Century Taught Civilization Relation Plant Obstacles Enormous Wilderness Dogma Crystals Conceit Wildness

Author:John Muir

“If the Creator were to bestow a new set of senses upon us, or slightly remodel the present ones, leaving all the rest of nature unchanged, we should never doubt we were in another world, and so in strict reality we should be, just as if all the world besides our senses were changed.”

Ifs World Should Reality Nature Doubt Changed Leaving Creator Senses Strict Another World

Book:John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

Source: John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

“No words will ever describe the exquisite beauty and charm of this mountain park – Nature’s landscape garden at once tenderly beautiful and sublime. No wonder it draws nature-lovers from all over the world.”

World Beautiful Wonder Lovers Mountain Draws Garden Landscape Parks Charm Sublime Exquisite Nature Lover

Book:Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, the Mountains of California, Stickeen, Selected Essays

Source: Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, the Mountains of California, Stickeen, Selected Essays

“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. This natural beauty-hunger is made manifest in the little window-sill gardens of the poor, though perhaps only a geranium slip in a broken cup, as well as in the carefully tended rose and lily gardens of the rich, the thousands of spacious city parks and botanical gardens, and in our magnificent National parks — the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, etc. — Nature's sublime wonderlands, the admiration and joy of the world.”

Source: Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, the Mountains of California, Stickeen, Selected Essays

“Listen to them! How wholly infused with God is this one big word of love that we call the world!”

World Bigs Listening

Book:John Muir: Nature Writings

Source: John Muir: Nature Writings

“There are no accidents in Nature. Every motion of the constantly shifting bodies in the world is timed to the occasion for some definite, fore-ordered end. The flowers blossom in obedience to the same law that marks the course of constellations, and the song of a bird is the echo of a universal symphony. Nature is one, and to me the greatest delight of observation and study is to discover new unities in this all-embracing and eternal harmony.”

“The last days of this glacial winter are not yet past; we live in 'creation's dawn.' The morning stars still sing together, and the world, though made, is still being made and becoming more beautiful every day.”

World Made Stills Together Lasts Past Beautiful Stars Morning Creation Becoming Winter Dawn Becoming More Last Day

Book:John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

Source: John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

“I am very blessed. The Valley is full of people, but they do not annoy me. I revolve in pathless places and in higher rocks than the world and his ribbony wife can reach.”

People World Wife Rocks Higher Blessed Valleys Annoying

Book:John Muir: Spiritual Writings

Source: John Muir: Spiritual Writings

“So abundant and novel are the objects of interest in a pure wilderness that unless you are pursuing special studies it matters little where you go, or how often to the same place. Wherever you chance to be always seems at the moment of all places the best; and you feel that there can be no happiness in this world or in any other for those who may not be happy there.”

World Feels May Littles Matter Moments Seems Interest Chance Novel Study Special Objects This World Pure Wilderness

Book:Travels in Alaska

Source: Travels in Alaska

“To the lover of pure wildness Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.”

World Country Wonderful Lovers Travel Wilderness Alaska

Author:John Muir

“The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”

World Want Looks Bigs Nature Dark Adventure Looking Good Earth Day Sierra

Book:John Muir's Last Journey: South To The Amazon And East To Africa: Unpublished Journals And Selected Correspondence

Source: John Muir's Last Journey: South To The Amazon And East To Africa: Unpublished Journals And Selected Correspondence

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

“In God's wildness lies the hope of the world.”

World Lying Wilderness Wildness Sierra Yosemite

Author:John Muir

“Who wouldn't be a mountaineer! Up here all the world's prizes seem nothing”

World Seems Adventure Prize Wilderness

Book:My First Summer in the Sierra: Illustrated Edition

Source: My First Summer in the Sierra: Illustrated Edition

“Most people are on the world, not in it-- having no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them-- undiffused seporate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but seporate.”

People World Conscious Stones Touching Sympathy Marble Polished Sierra Earth And Nature Yosemite

Author:John Muir

“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.”

World Two Tree Curiosity Forests New World Doorways Forests And Trees Pine Trees Arbor Day Two Trees

Author:John Muir

“As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can".”

Source: To Yosemite and Beyond: Writings from the Years 1863-1875

“One learns that the world, though made, is yet being made; that this is still the morning of creation; that mountains long conceived are now being born, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hollowed for lakes.”

World Long Made Stills Born Morning Creation Mountain Rivers Lakes Glaciers Rivers And Lakes Lakes And Rivers Mountain Lakes

Book:John Muir’s Incredible Travel Memoirs: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, My First Summer in the Sierra, The Mountains of California, Travels in Alaska, Steep Trails… (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs & Wilderness Studies from the Naturalist, Environmental Philosopher and Early Advocate of Preservation of Wilderness, the Author of The Yosemite and Picturesque California

Source: John Muir’s Incredible Travel Memoirs: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, My First Summer in the Sierra, The Mountains of California, Travels in Alaska, Steep Trails… (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs & Wilderness Studies from the Naturalist, Environmental Philosopher and Early Advocate of Preservation of Wilderness, the Author of The Yosemite and Picturesque California

“All the world was before me and every day was a holiday, so it did not seem important to which one of the world's wildernesses I first should wander.”

World Should Firsts Important Seems Wander Holiday Wilderness

Book:JOHN MUIR’S CALIFORNIA COLLECTION: My First Summer in the Sierra, Picturesque California, The Mountains of California, The Yosemite & Our National Parks (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Writings and Wilderness Essays

Source: JOHN MUIR’S CALIFORNIA COLLECTION: My First Summer in the Sierra, Picturesque California, The Mountains of California, The Yosemite & Our National Parks (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Writings and Wilderness Essays

“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”

Men World Nature Break Adventure Mountain News Losing Machines Making Money Mountain Climbing Outdoor Adventure

Book:THE ALASKA ACCOUNT of John Muir: Travels in Alaska, The Cruise of the Corwin, Stickeen & Alaska Days with John Muir (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs and Wilderness Essays from the author of The Yosemite, Our National Parks, The Mountains of California, A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf, Picturesque California, Steep Trails

Source: THE ALASKA ACCOUNT of John Muir: Travels in Alaska, The Cruise of the Corwin, Stickeen & Alaska Days with John Muir (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs and Wilderness Essays from the author of The Yosemite, Our National Parks, The Mountains of California, A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf, Picturesque California, Steep Trails

“Few places in this world are more dangerous than home. Fear not, therefore, to try the mountain passes. They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action.”

World Trying Home Care Action Dangerous This World Adventure Mountain Environmental Faculty Apathy Enthusiastic Vigorous Fear Not Hiking In The Mountains

Book:Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, the Mountains of California, Stickeen, Selected Essays

Source: Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, the Mountains of California, Stickeen, Selected Essays