518 Quotes by John Muir

As if nothing that does not obviously make for the benefit of man had any right to exist; as if our ways were God’s ways.

Having escaped restraint, they were, like some people we know of, afraid of their freedom, did not know what to do with it, and seemed glad to get back into the old familiar bondage.

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.

But think of the hearts of these whales, beating warm against the sea, day and night, through dark and light, on and on for centuries; how the red blood must rush and gurgle in and out, bucketfuls, barrelfuls at a beat!

As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing.

The Big Tree is Nature’s forest masterpiece, and so far as I know, the greatest of living things.

Though it is 2500 feet high, the glacier flowed over its ground as a river flows over a boulder; and since it emerged from the icy sea as from a sepulcher it has been sorely beaten with storms; but from all those deadly, crushing, bitter experiences comes this delicate life and beauty, to teach us that what we in our faithless ignorance and fear call destruction is creation.

Come to the woods, for here is rest,... climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.