Quote

The honey-bee's great ambition is to be rich, to lay up great stores, to possess the sweet of every flower that blooms. She is more than provident. Enough will not satisfy her, she must have all she can get by hook or crook.

John Burroughs

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John Burroughs
Age: 83 †
Born: 1837
Born: April 3
Died: 1921
Died: March 29
Essayist
Naturalist
Writer
Delaware County
New York
Sweet
Bees
Rich
Honey
Enough
Possess
Provident
Must
Stores
Crook
Great
Lays
Blooms
Every
Ambition
Crooks
Garden
Satisfy
Flower
Hook

More quotes by John Burroughs

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All sounds are sharper in winter the air transmits better. At night I hear more distinctly the steady roar of the North Mountain. In summer it is a sort of complacent purr, as the breezes stroke down its sides but in winter always the same low, sullen growl.
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Few persons realize how much of their happiness, such as it is, is dependent upon their work.
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For two summers not a blue wing, not a blue warble. I seemed to miss something kindred and precious from my environment--the visible embodiment of the tender sky and wistful soil. What a loss, I said, to coming generations of dwellers in the country--no bluebird in spring!
John Burroughs
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One may summon his philosophy when they are beaten in battle, not till then.
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Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.
John Burroughs
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The floating vapour is just as true an illustration of the law of gravity as the falling avalanche.
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Nature comes home to one most when one is at home. The stranger and traveler finds her a stranger and traveler also.
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I am not going to advocate ... the abandoning of the improved modes of travel but I am going to brag as lustily as I can on behalf of the pedestrian, and show how all the shining angels second and accompany the man who goes afoot, while all the dark spirits are ever looking out for a chance to ride.
John Burroughs
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The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place, but a state of mind.
John Burroughs
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The overall quantity of nuclear weapons in the world continues to decline slowly.
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I want nothing less than a faith founded upon a rock, faith in the constitution of things. The various man-made creeds are fictitious, like the constellations Orion, Cassiopeia’s Chair, the Big Dipper the only thing real in them is the stars, and the only thing real in the creeds is the soul’s aspiration toward the Infinite.
John Burroughs
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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.
John Burroughs
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The art of nature is all in the direction of concealment.
John Burroughs
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The thing that I focus on because I don't think it gets enough attention is that among the world's major powers, there is still a nuclear balance of terror - I'm talking about between the United States and Russia, the United States and China.
John Burroughs
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One can return to their place of birth, but one cannot go back to your youth.
John Burroughs
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Happiness comes most to persons who seek it least and think least about it. It is not an object to be sought, it is a state to be induced. It must follow and not lead. It must overtake you, and not you overtake it.
John Burroughs
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The countries outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty also are bound by that obligation [ Article Six of the treaty] according to, at least it's a strong implication of, a 1996 opinion of the International Court of Justice.
John Burroughs
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The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.
John Burroughs
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Life is a struggle, but not a warfare.
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The deeper our insight into the methods of nature . . . the more incredible the popular Christianity seems to us.
John Burroughs