John Burroughs Quotes (65 Quotes)


    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.

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

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

    I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.



    In sorrow he learned this truth Though one may return to the place of his birth, He cannot go back to his youth

    That which distinguishes this day from all others is that then both orators and artillerymen shoot blank cartridges.

    I see on a immense scale, and as clearly as in a demonstration in a laboratory, that good comes out of evil that the impartiality of the Nature Providence is best that we are made strong by what we overcome that man is man because he is as free to do evil as to do good that life is as free to develop hostile forms as to develop friendly that power waits upon him who earns it that disease, wars, the unloosened, devastating elemental forces have each and all played their part in developing and hardening man and giving him the heroic fiber.

    Literature is an investment of genius which has dividends to all subsequent times

    Now is the time of the illuminated woods ... when every leaf glows like a tiny lamp.

    Literature is an investment of genius which pays dividends to all subsequent times.

    Temperament lies behind mood behind will, lies the fate of character. Then behind both, the influence of family the tyranny of culture and finally the power of climate and environment and we are free, only to the extent we rise above these.

    Some scenes you juggle two balls, some scenes you juggle three balls, some scenes you can juggle five balls. The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101. Then you start putting layers on top of that.

    Nature comes home to one most when he is at home the stranger and traveler finds her a stranger and traveler also. One's own landscape comes in time to be a sort of outlying part of himself he has sowed himself broadcast upon it, and it reflects his own moods and feelings he is sensitive to the verge of the horizon cut those trees, and he bleeds mar those hills, and he suffers. How has the farmer planted himself in his fields builded himself into his stone walls, and evoked the sympathy of the hills by his struggle This home feeling, this domestication of nature, is important to the observer. This is the birdlime with which he catches the bird this is the private door that admits him behind the scenes.

    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.

    A man's life may stagnate as literally as water may stagnate, and just as motion and direction are the remedy for one, so purpose and activity are the remedy for the other.

    Nothing relieves and ventilates the mind like a resolution.

    The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.

    Some men are like nails, very easily drawn; others however are more like rivets never drawn at all.

    You must have the bird in your heart before you can find it in the bush.

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

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

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

    The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.

    I have discovered the secret of happiness - it is work, either with the hands or the head. The moment I have something to do, the draughts are open and my chimney draws, and I am happy.

    To me - old age is always ten years older than I am.

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

    One goes to Nature only for hints and half-truths. Her facts are crude until you have absorbed them or translated them.... It is not so much what we see as what the thing seen suggests.

    To find new things, take the path you took yesterday.

    There is hardly a man on earth who will take advice unless he is certain that it is positively bad.

    The honey-bee's great ambition is to be rich, to lay up great stores, to possess the sweet of every flower that blooms. She is more than provident. Enough will not satisfy her, she must have all she can get by hook or crook.


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

    The secret of happiness is having something meaningful to do, seeking purpose

    One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this 'To rise above little things.'


    The natural forces crush and destroy man when he transgresses them, as they destroy or neutralize one another.

    Literature is an investment in genius which pays back dividends to all subsequent times.

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

    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.

    To learn something new, take the path you took yesterday.

    Culture means the perfect and equal development of man on all sides

    We can outrun the wind and the storm, but we cannot outrun the demon of Hurry.

    To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your facts is another.

    Serene, I fold my hands and wait, Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea I rave no more gainst time or fate, For lo my own shall come to me.

    One can only learn his powers of action by action, and his powers of thought by thinking.

    What is the best thing for a stream It is to keep moving. If it stops, it stagnates. So the best thing for a man is that which keeps the currents going the physical, the moral, and the intellectual currents. Hence the secret of happiness is something.


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

    I was born with a chronic anxiety about the weather.


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