John Muir Quotes

Sun Behind Tree
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

For inspirational, well-wrought quotes on natural themes, it's hard to beat John Muir. He writes of nature and human nature with a poetic flourish.

I offer a few Muir quotes today, just because.

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I used to envy the father of our race, dwelling as he did in contact with the newmade fields and plants of Eden; but I do so no more, because I have discovered that I also live in 'creation's dawn.' The morning stars still sing together, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful every day.

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We find in the fields of Nature no place that is blank or barren; every spot on land or sea is covered with harvests, and these harvests are always ripe and ready to be gathered and no toiler is ever underpaid.

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Death is a kind nurse saying, "Come, children, to bed and get up in the morning;" a gracious mother calling her children home.

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Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another.

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There are no harsh, hard dividing lines in Nature. Glaciers blend with the snow and snow blends with the thin invisible breath of the sky. So there are no stiff, frigid, stony partition walls betwixt us and heaven. There are blendings as immeasurable and as artraccable as the edges of melting clouds.

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The evening flames with purple and gold...the mighty host of trees baptized in the purple flood stand hushed and thoughtful, awaiting the sun's blessing and farewell.

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...Unfortunately, MAN is in the woods, and waste and pure destruction are making rapid headway. If the importance of forests were at all understood, even from an economic standpoint, their preservation would call forth the most watchful attention of government.

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In God's wildness lies the hope of the world the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and the wounds heal ere we are aware.

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You hear strange whisperings among the tree tops, as if the giants were taking counsel together. One after another, nodding and swaying, calling and replying, spreads the news, until all with one accord break forth into glorious song, welcoming the first grand snowstorm of the year...

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To ask me whether I could endure to live without friends is absurd. It is easy enough to live out of material sight of friends, but to live without human love is impossible. Quench love, and what is left of a man's life but the folding of a few jointed bones and square inches of flesh? Who would call that life?

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Go, and read some more:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/jomu/quotes.htm

Or read some of his books - that'd be a great resolution for the new year.