“Tell me what you will of the benefactions of city civilization, of the sweet security of streets-all as part of the natural upgrowth of man towards the high destiny we hear so much of. I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found. If the death exhalations that brood the broad towns in which we so fondly compact ourselves were made visible, we should flee as from a plague. All are more or less sick; there is not a perfectly sane man in San Francisco.” IfsKnowsMenShouldMadeBodyFoundNaturalCitiesDestinyAirStreetsSecuritySweetCivilizationScenePureTravelSickTownsVisibleThriveBroadsSanePlagueSan FranciscoCompact Book:John Muir, in His Own Words: A Book of Quotations Source: John Muir, in His Own Words: A Book of Quotations
“We doubt not the destiny of our country that she is to accomplish great things for human nature, and be the mother of a nobler race than the world has yet known. But she has been so false to the scheme made out at her nativity, that it is now hard to say which way that destiny points.” WorldWayHumansHas BeensMadeCountryHardMotherRaceKnownDestinyDoubtHuman NatureAccomplishGreat ThingsOur CountrySchemesNativity Book:Memoirs, [ed.] by R.W. Emerson, W.H. Channing, and J.F. Clarke Source: Memoirs, [ed.] by R.W. Emerson, W.H. Channing, and J.F. Clarke
“I have consecrated my life to changing matter into spirit with the hope of one day seeing it all. Seeing in its total form, while wearing the mask, from the distance of death. And there, in the eternal destiny, to seek the face I had before the world was made.” WorldMadeMatterFacesFormSpiritDestinySeeingOne DayEternalDistanceMask Author:Joel-Peter Witkin