John Muir Quotes

Quotes about:

I’d rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than in church thinking about the mountains.

John Muir

Thinking, Church, Mountain

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Of all the paths you take in life,
make sure a few of them are dirt.

John Muir

Nature, Hiking, Dirt

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In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

John Muir

Nature, Adventure, Garden

John Muir (2015). “STEEP TRAILS: California - Utah - Nevada - Washington - Oregon - The Grand Canyon: Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Essays and Wilderness Studies from the author of The Yosemite, Our National Parks, A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf & Picturesque California”, p.67, e-artnow

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Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.

John Muir

Peace, Nature, Sunshine

Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 1898

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The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.

John Muir

Song, Flower, Heart

John Muir, Linnie Marsh Wolfe (1979). “John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir”, p.92, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.

John Muir

Travel, Home, Tired

"Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, the Mountains of California, Stickeen, Selected Essays".

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Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

John Muir

Life, Strength, Beauty

John Muir (1997). “Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, the Mountains of California, Stickeen, Selected Essays”, p.814, Library of America

217 Copy quote
Hiking - I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, "A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them."

John Muir

Beautiful, Land, Hiking

254 Copy quote
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

John Muir

Inspirational, Peace, Nature

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God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.

John Muir

Nature, Sea, Tree

John Muir, Terry Gifford (1996). “John Muir: His Life and Letters and Other Writings”, p.373, The Mountaineers Books

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Wilderness is a necessity... there must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls.

John Muir

Soul, Wilderness, Humans

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Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life.

John Muir

Life, Science, Doors

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To sit in solitude, to think in solitude with only the music of the stream and the cedar to break the flow of silence, there lies the value of wilderness.

John Muir

Lying, Thinking, Silence

141 Copy quote
The mountains are calling and I must go.

John Muir

Nature, Climbing, Hiking

John Muir, Terry Gifford (1996). “John Muir: His Life and Letters and Other Writings”, p.190, The Mountaineers Books

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The power of imagination makes us infinite.

John Muir

Inspirational, Life, Motivational

John Muir, Edwin Way Teale, Henry Bugbee Kane (2001). “The Wilderness World of John Muir”, p.321, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

John Muir

Nature, Heart, I Hate You

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Come to the woods, for here is rest.

John Muir

Woods, Wilderness

John Muir, Linnie Marsh Wolfe (1979). “John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir”, p.235, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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Look! Nature is overflowing with the grandeur of God!

John Muir

Nature, Vision, Looks

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The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.

John Muir

Nature, Adventure, Dark

John Muir (2013). “John Muir's Last Journey: South To The Amazon And East To Africa: Unpublished Journals And Selected Correspondence”, p.50, Island Press

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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.

John Muir

Beautiful, Song, Acceptance

John Muir (2015). “JOHN MUIR’S CALIFORNIA COLLECTION: My First Summer in the Sierra, Picturesque California, The Mountains of California, The Yosemite & Our National Parks (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Writings and Wilderness Essays”, p.606, e-artnow

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Wherever we go in the mountains, we find more than we seek.

John Muir

Mountain

John Muir (2015). “John Muir’s Incredible Travel Memoirs: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, My First Summer in the Sierra, The Mountains of California, Travels in Alaska, Steep Trails… (Illustrated): Adventure Memoirs & Wilderness Studies from the Naturalist, Environmental Philosopher and Early Advocate of Preservation of Wilderness, the Author of The Yosemite and Picturesque California”, p.198, e-artnow

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There are no accidents in Nature. Every motion of the constantly shifting bodies in the world is timed to the occasion for some definite, fore-ordered end. The flowers blossom in obedience to the same law that marks the course of constellations, and the song of a bird is the echo of a universal symphony. Nature is one, and to me the greatest delight of observation and study is to discover new unities in this all-embracing and eternal harmony.

John Muir

Song, Flower, Echoes

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Nature in her green, tranquil woods heals and soothes all afflictions.

John Muir

Affliction, Green, Woods

John Muir, Linnie Marsh Wolfe (1979). “John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir”, p.220, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

John Muir

Nature, Flower, Adventure

John Muir, Linnie Marsh Wolfe (1979). “John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir”, p.427, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land or down among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God's eternal beauty and love. So universally true is this, the spot where we chance to be always seems the best.

John Muir

Beautiful, Sea, Land

John Muir, Linnie Marsh Wolfe (1979). “John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir”, p.299, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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Born: April 21, 1838
Died: December 24, 1914
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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