Quote

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.

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
Respect
Worlds
Scant
Poor
Sell
Nursed
Earth
Treat
Veneration
World
Sells
Stewardship
Treats
Reserve
Senses
Mud
Environmental
Awe
Shoes
Reserves
Mothered

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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.
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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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In fact, the United States is building up its trident nuclear sub fleet in the Pacific, based at Bangor, Washington to build up its capabilities to wage nuclear war.
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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.
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Love is the measure of life only so far as we love do we really live.
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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 can return to their place of birth, but one cannot go back to your youth.
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Blessed is the man who has some congenial work, some occupation in which he can put his heart, and which affords a complete outlet to all the forces there are in him.
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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.
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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.
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If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature.
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The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world.
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Few persons realize how much of their happiness is dependent upon their work, upon the fact that they are busy and not left to feed upon themselves. Blessed is the person who has some congenial work, some occupation in which to place one's heart, and which affords a complete outlet to all the forces that are in him or her.
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Science makes no claim to infallibility it leaves that claim to be made by theologians.
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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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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.
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[T]he cold warms me—after a different fashion from that of the kitchen stove.
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Time does not become sacred to us until we have lived it.
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