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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.

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

More quotes by 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.
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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.
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[Theodore Roosevelt] was a naturalist on the broadest grounds, uniting much technical knowledge with knowledge of the daily lives and habits of all forms of wild life. He probably knew tenfold more natural history than all the presidents who had preceded him, and, I think one is safe in saying, more human history also.
John Burroughs
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Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years.
John Burroughs
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We can outrun the wind and the storm, but we cannot outrun the demon of hurry.
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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Unfortunately, nuclear weapons have become identified with state power.
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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.
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Life is a struggle, but not a warfare.
John Burroughs
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Almost all of the governments have agreed that they will not acquire nuclear weapons and that they will allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor their commercial and research nuclear power operations to ensure that nuclear materials - highly enriched uranium and plutonium - are not diverted to use in weapons.
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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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O bluebird, welcome back again, Thy azure coat and ruddy vest, Are hues that April loveth best.
John Burroughs
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Every walk to the woods is a religious rite, every bath in the stream is a saving ordinance. Communion service is at all hours, and the bread and wine are from the heart and marrow of Mother Earth.
John Burroughs
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The deeper our insight into the methods of nature . . . the more incredible the popular Christianity seems to us.
John Burroughs
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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.
John Burroughs
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You cannot cause disproportionate damage to the environment you cannot harm neutral states. The court said that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is generally contrary to the international law of armed conflict.
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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The bluebird enjoys the preeminence of being the first bit of color that cheers our northern landscape. The other birds that arrive about the same time--the sparrow, the robin, the phoebe-bird--are clad in neutral tints, gray, brown, or russet but the bluebird brings one of the primary hues and the divinest of them all.
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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The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.
John Burroughs