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We cannot walk through life on mountain peaks.

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
Peaks
Mountain
Walk
Walks
Cannot
Life

More quotes by John Burroughs

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The poor old earth which has mothered us and nursed us we treat with scant respect. Our awe and veneration we reserve for the worlds we know not of. Our senses sell us out. The mud on our shoes disenchants us.
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Then, again, how annoying to be told it is only five miles to the next place when it is really eight or ten!
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There is hardly a man on earth who will take advice unless he is certain that it is positively bad.
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Serene, I fold my hands and wait, Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, For lo! my own shall come to me.
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The place to observe nature is where you are.
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The deeper our insight into the methods of nature . . . the more incredible the popular Christianity seems to us.
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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.
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I think rain is as necessary to the mind as to vegetation. My very thoughts become thirsty, and crave the moisture.
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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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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One is tempted to say that the most human plants, after all, are the weeds.
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The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.
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In what bold relief stand out the lives of all walkers of the snow! The snow is a great tell-tale, and blabs as effectually as it obliterates. I go into the woods, and know all that has happened. I cross the fields, and if only a mouse has visited his neighbor, the fact is chronicled.
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One goes to Nature only for hints and half-truths. Her facts are crude until you have absorbed them or translated them ... It is not so much what we see as what the thing seen suggests.
John Burroughs
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How much there is in books that one does not want to know, that it would be a mere weariness and burden to the spirit to know.
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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One can return to their place of birth, but one cannot go back to your youth.
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Man is, and always has been, a maker of gods. It has been the most serious and significant occupation of his sojourn in the world.
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He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter.
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We've been in a period of relative stability and cooperation since the end of the Cold War among the world's major powers, but that may not always exist. And certainly one could even predict that there will be periods of hostility or tension ahead.
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