Top 100 John Burroughs Quotes

#1. The rocks are not so close akin to us as the soil; they are one more remove from us; but they lie back of all, and are the final source of all ... Time, geologic time, looks out at us from the rocks as from no other objects in the landscape.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #14196
#2. I still find each day too short..

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #25880
#3. Before the bud swells, before the grass springs, before the plough is started, comes the sugar harvest. It is sequel of the bitter frost; a sap run is the sweet goodbye of winter.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #33590
#4. To see Earth fully we already need to love it

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #36093
#5. To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter ... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #63193
#6. I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #70739
#7. How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #90528
#8. Science sees the process of evolution from the outside, as one might a train of cars going by, and resolves it into the physical and mechanical elements, without getting any nearer the reason of its going by, or the point of its departure or destination.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #94685
#9. Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #112662
#10. If you want to see birds, you must have birds in your heart.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #114682
#11. The beautiful vagabonds, endowed with every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds - how many human aspirations are realized in their free, holiday-lives, and how many suggestions to the poet in their flight and song!

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #118303
#12. Nature is not benevolent; Nature is just, gives pound for pound, measure for measure, makes no exceptions, never tempers her decrees with mercy, or winks at any infringement of her laws.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #139346
#13. Nature will not be conquered, but gives herself freely to her true lover - to him who revels with her, bathes in her seas, sails her rivers, camps in her woods, and with no mercenary ends, accepts all.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #167422
#14. If the October days were a cordial like the sub-acids of fruit, these are a tonic like the wine of iron. Drink deep or be careful how you taste this December vintage. The first sip may chill, but a full draught warms and invigorates.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #193302
#15. One of the hardest lessons we have to learn in this life, and one that many persons never learn, is to see the divine, the celestial, the pure, in the common, the near at hand-to see that heaven lies about us here in this world.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #197465
#16. The kingdom of heaven in not a place but a state of mind.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #221397
#17. Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #252534
#18. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #270323
#19. You can get discouraged many times, but you are not a failure until you begin to blame somebody else and stop trying.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #285757
#20. If we take science as our sole guide, if we accept and hold fast that alone which is verifiable, the old theology must go.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #292649
#21. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #339656
#22. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #352978
#23. The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon
the beauty and the wonder of the world.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #377911
#24. There is hardly a man on earth who will take advice unless he is certain that it is positively bad.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #383406
#25. Every day is a Sabbath to me. All pure water is holy water, and this earth is a celestial abode.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #418082
#26. The art of nature is all in the direction of concealment.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #427081
#27. The secret of happiness is something to do

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #441930
#28. Culture means the perfect and equal development of man on all sides.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #459019
#29. One is tempted to say that the most human plants, after all, are the weeds.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #482845
#30. To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #570896
#31. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #587983
#32. How readily the bluebirds become our friends and neighbors when we offer them suitable nesting retreats!

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #589774
#33. One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: 'To rise above little things'.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #612201
#34. The spirit of man can endure only so much and when it is broken only a miracle can mend it.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #613831
#35. The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #626075
#36. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #651495
#37. In winter the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #686612
#38. Science makes no claim to infallibility; it leaves that claim to be made by theologians.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #693746
#39. We can outrun the wind and the storm, but we cannot outrun the demon of hurry.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #717859
#40. I came from a race of fishers; trout streams gurgled about the roots of my family tree.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #735406
#41. Life is a struggle, but not a warfare.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #738049
#42. I seldom go into a natural history museum without feeling as if I were attending a funeral.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #741411
#43. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #773601
#44. Nothing relieves and ventilates the mind like a resolution.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #790561
#45. That which distinguishes this day from all others is that then both orators and artillerymen shoot blank cartridges.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #806873
#46. You can fail many times, but you're not a failure until you begin to blame somebody else.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #809428
#47. 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.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #816175
#48. Love sharpens the eye, the ear, the touch; it quickens the feet, it steadies the hand, it arms against the wet and the cold.
What we love to do, that we do well.
To know is not all; it is only half.
To love is the other half

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #832479
#49. The deeper our insight into the methods of nature ... the more incredible the popular Christianity seems to us.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #844189
#50. If you think you can do it, you can.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #853523
#51. Nature we have always with us, an in exhaustible store-house of that which moves the heart, appeals to the mind and fires the imagination -- health to the body, a stimulus to the intellect, and joy to the soul.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #881575
#52. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #906890
#53. Oh, Spring is surely coming, Her couriers fill the air; Each morn are new arrivals, Each night her ways prepare; I scent her fragrant garments, Her foot is on the stair.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #925150
#54. Some men are like nails, very easily drawn; others however are more like rivets never drawn at all.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #980500
#55. In the printed page the only real things are the paper and the ink; the white spaces play the same part in aiding the eye to take in the meaning of the print as do the black letters.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #995814
#56. For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1000661
#57. In New York and New England the sap starts up in the sugar maple the very day the bluebird arrives, and sugar-making begins forthwith. The bird is generally a mere disembodied voice; a rumor in the air for two or three days before it takes visible shape before you.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1051601
#58. A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1067827
#59. O bluebird, welcome back again, Thy azure coat and ruddy vest, Are hues that April loveth best ...

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1109385
#60. For two summers not a blue wing, not a blue warble. I seemed to miss something kindred and precious from my environment
the visible embodiment of the tender sky and wistful soil. What a loss, I said, to coming generations of dwellers in the country
no bluebird in spring!

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1171652
#61. It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1177336
#62. Man takes root at his feet, and at best he is no more than a potted plant in his house or carriage till he has established communication with the soil by the loving and magnetic touch of his soles to it.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1210076
#63. One can only learn his powers of action by action, and his powers of thought by thinking

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1234234
#64. Time does not become sacred to us until we have lived it.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1266823
#65. Go to the sea or climb the mountain, and with the ruggedest and the savagest you will find likewise the fairest and the most delicate. The greatness and the minuteness of nature pass all understanding.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1275829
#66. It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1284711
#67. Travel and society polish one, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, and a little moss is a good thing on a man.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1299587
#68. One may summon his philosophy when they are beaten in battle, not till then.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1300608
#69. The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1315059
#70. The most precious things of life are near at hand, without money and without price. Each of you has the whole wealth of the universe at your very door. All that I ever had, and still have, may be yours by stretching forth your hand and taking it.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1334856
#71. A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1336261
#72. Now is the time of the illuminated woods ... when every leaf glows like a tiny lamp.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1364173
#73. If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature ...

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1386461
#74. The gift of perfume to a flower is a special grace like genius or like beauty, and never becomes common or cheap.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1388226
#75. The floating vapour is just as true an illustration of the law of gravity as the falling avalanche.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1412256
#76. [T]he cold warms me - after a different fashion from that of the kitchen stove.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1424470
#77. I have loved the feel of the grass under my feet, and the sound of the running streams by my side. The hum of the wind in the tree-tops has always been good music to me, and the face of the fields has often comforted me more than the faces of men.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1445685
#78. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #1476878
#79. Few persons realize how much of their happiness, such as it is, is dependent upon their work.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1553800
#80. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place, but a state of mind.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1557345
#81. I am in love with this world. It has been my home. It has been my point of outlook into the universe. I have never bruised myself against it nor tried to use it ignobly.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1578848
#82. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #1579068
#83. We cannot walk through life on mountain peaks.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1633233
#84. I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1645590
#85. I go to books and to nature as the bee goes to a flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1654361
#86. I think rain is as necessary to the mind as to vegetation. My very thoughts become thirsty, and crave the moisture.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1681747
#87. In the order of nature we may behold the ways of the Eternal.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1695274
#88. The God of the Puritans ... was a monster too horrible to contemplate.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1707019
#89. 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.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1710448
#90. I have discovered the secret of happiness - it is work, either with the hands or the head. The moment I have something to do, the draughts are open and my chimney draws, and I am happy.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1718882
#91. Love is the measure of life; only so far as we love do we really live.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1737018
#92. To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your facts is another.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1776028
#93. 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

John Burroughs Quotes #1790688
#94. The pleasure and value of every walk or journey we take may be doubled to us by carefully noting down the impressions it makes upon us.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1798709
#95. One may return to the place of his birth, He cannot go back to his youth.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1801824
#96. We have produced some good walkers and saunterers, and some noted climbers; but as a staple recreation, as a daily practice, the mass of the people dislike and despise walking.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1813957
#97. Then, again, how annoying to be told it is only five miles to the next place when it is really eight or ten!

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1820990
#98. Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all - that has been my religion.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1831539
#99. A man's life may stagnate as literally as water may stagnate, and just as motion and direction are the remedy for one, so purpose and activity are the remedy for the other.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1841182
#100. One can return to their place of birth, but one cannot go back to your youth.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes #1855366

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