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 MuirRead
As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can".
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses a deep connection to nature and a commitment to understanding it.
John Muir emphasizes the importance of immersing oneself in nature to truly appreciate and understand its beauty and complexity. He conveys a lifelong dedication to experiencing the elements of the natural world, suggesting that through this connection, one can gain profound insights into life and existence.
Themes
NatureConnectionUnderstandingBeautyExperience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a nature retreat to inspire participants to connect deeply with their surroundings.
More from John Muir
All quotes →When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
John MuirRead
The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever planted. The whole continent was a garden, and from the beginning, it seemed to be favored above all the other wild parks and gardens of the globe.
John MuirRead
From the dust of the earth, from the common elementary fund, the Creator has made Homo sapiens. From the same material he has made every other creature, however noxious and insignificant to us. They are earth-born companions and our fellow mortals.
John MuirRead
...full of God's thoughts, a place of peace and safety amid the most exalted grandeur and enthusiastic action, a new song, a place of beginnings abounding in first lessons of life, mountain building, eternal, invincible, unbreakable order; with sermons in stone, storms, trees, flowers, and animals brimful with humanity.
John MuirRead
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.
John MuirRead
Similar quotes
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.
Henry David ThoreauRead
It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, The holy time is quiet as a nun Breathless with adoration; the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquillity; The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the sea: Listen! the mighty being is awake, And doth with his eternal motion make A sound like thundereverlastingly.
William WordsworthRead
A Christian who does not protect Creation, who does not let it grow, is a Christian who does not care about the work of God, that work that was born from the love of God for us. And this is the first response to the first creation: protect creation, make it grow.
Pope FrancisRead
On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty. Today is such a day.
RumiRead
And let them pass, as they will too soon, _x000D_ _x000D_ With the bean-flowers' boon, _x000D_ _x000D_ And the blackbird's tune, _x000D_ _x000D_ And May, and June!
Robert BrowningRead
The elms of New England! They are as much a part of her beauty as the columns of the Parthenon were the glory of its architecture.
Henry Ward BeecherRead