John Burroughs

"Without the emotion of the beautiful, the sublime, the mysterious, there is no art, no religion, no literature."

"A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else."

"A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying."

"A sap run is the sweet goodbye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost."

"A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did."

"Birds and animals probably think without knowing that they think; that is, they have not self-consciousness. Only man seems to be endowed with this faculty; he alone develops disinterested intelligence, intelligence that is not primarily concerned with his own safety and well-being but that looks abroad upon things."

"England is like the margin of a spring-run: near its source, always green, always cool, always moist, comparatively free from frost in winter and from drought in summer."

"For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice - no paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service."

"How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days."

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order."

"If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature. And the greatest of these, at least the most constant and always at hand, is nature."

"If we take science as our sole guide, if we accept and hold fast that alone which is verifiable, the old theology must go."

"If you think you can do it, you can."

"Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all - that has been my religion."

"Leap, and the net will appear."

"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."

"Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral."

"Robin is one of the most native and democratic of our birds; he is one of the family, and seems much nearer to us than those rare, exotic visitants, as the orchard starling or rose-breasted grossbeak, with their distant, high-bred ways."

"Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years."

"The common bees will never use their sting upon the queen; if she is to be disposed of, they starve her to death, and the queen herself will sting nothing but royalty, nothing but a rival queen."

"The dog is often quick to resent a kick, be it from man or beast, but I have never known him to show anger at the door that slammed to and hit him. Probably, if the door held him by his tail or his limb, it would quickly receive the imprint of his teeth."

"The Infinite cannot be measured. The plan of Nature is so immense, but she has no plan, no scheme, but to go on and on forever. What is size, what is time, distance, to the Infinite? Nothing. The Infinite knows no time, no space, no great, no small, no beginning, no end."

"The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place, but a state of mind."

"The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention."

"The spirit of man can endure only so much and when it is broken only a miracle can mend it."

"The trunk of a tree is like a community where only one generation at a time is engaged in active business, the great mass of the population being retired and adding solidity and permanence to the social organism."

"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."

"Travel and society polish one, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, and a little moss is a good thing on a man."

"We now use the word 'nature' very much as our fathers used the word 'God.'"

"We talk of communing with Nature, but 'tis with ourselves we commune... Nature furnishes the conditions - the solitude - and the soul furnishes the entertainment."

"When a herd of cattle see a strange object, they are not satisfied till each one has sniffed it; and the horse is cured of his fright at the robe, or the meal-bag, or other object, as soon as he can be induced to smell it. There is a great deal of speculation in the eye of an animal, but very little science."

"Without the name, any flower is still more or less a stranger to you. The name betrays its family, its relationship to other flowers, and gives the mind something tangible to grasp. It is very difficult for persons who have had no special training to learn the names of the flowers from the botany."

"You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think."