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There is a condition or circumstance that has a greater bearing upon the happiness of life than any other. What is it? Something to do some congenial work. Take away the occupation of all people and what a wretched world it would be.

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
Life
Greater
Congenial
World
Happiness
Bearing
People
Upon
Circumstance
Away
Wretched
Take
Occupation
Work
Condition
Something
Circumstances
Would
Conditions

More quotes by John Burroughs

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Without death and decay, how could life go on?
John Burroughs
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The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood.
John Burroughs
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There are nine countries in the world that have nuclear weapons. There are about 27,000 nuclear weapons total on the planet. The countries that have nuclear weapons deploy them ready for use and have doctrines saying that they would use them in certain circumstances.
John Burroughs
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The life of nature we must meet halfway it is shy, withdrawn, and blends itself with a vast neutral background. We must be initiated it is an order the secrets of which are well guarded.
John Burroughs
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[T]he cold warms me—after a different fashion from that of the kitchen stove.
John Burroughs
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Science makes no claim to infallibility it leaves that claim to be made by theologians.
John Burroughs
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I seldom go into a natural history museum without feeling as if I were attending a funeral.
John Burroughs
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Few persons realize how much of their happiness, such as it is, is dependent upon their work.
John Burroughs
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If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature.
John Burroughs
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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.
John Burroughs
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Nature exists for man no more than she does for monkeys, and is as regardless of his life or pleasure or success as she is of the fleas. Her waves will drown him, her fire burn him, and her earth devour him, her storms and lightning smite him, as if he were only a dog.
John Burroughs
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Life is a struggle, but not a warfare.
John Burroughs
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The art of nature is all in the direction of concealment.
John Burroughs
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There is hardly a man on earth who will take advice unless he is certain that it is positively bad.
John Burroughs
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I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.
John Burroughs
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The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world.
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.
John Burroughs
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You cannot use [nuclear weapons] to target civilians you cannot use them against military targets if they have indiscriminate effects on civilians in addition to the attack on the military target.
John Burroughs
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There is an international treaty framework for this. It's the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Most countries in the world are members of the treaty.
John Burroughs
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To the scientist Nature is a storehouse of facts, laws, processes to the artist she is a storehouse of pictures to the poet she is a storehouse of images, fancies, a source of inspiration to the moralist she is a storehouse of precepts and parables to all she may be a source of knowledge and joy.
John Burroughs