John Muir

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation’s braggart lords.

To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.

One may as well dam for water tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.

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.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

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

The mountains are calling and I must go.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.

I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do.

The gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry, and all that is spiritual.

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.

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.