John Muir Quotes

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

The waving of a pine tree on the top of a mountain – a magic wand in Nature’s hand – every devout mountaineer knows its power; but the marvelous beauty value of what the Scotch call a breckan in a still dell, what poet has sung this?

I bade adieu to mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.

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

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.

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.

Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.

The practical importance of the preservation of our forests is augmented by their relations to climate, soil and streams.

Of all the mountain ranges I have climbed, I like the Sierra Nevada the best.

Sequoia seeds have flat wings, and glint and glance in their flight like a boy’s kite.

All the world lies warm in one heart, yet the Sierra seems to get more light than other mountains. The weather is mostly sunshine embellished with magnificent storms, and nearly everything shines from base to summit – the rocks, streams, lakes, glaciers, irised falls, and the forests of silver fir and silver pine.

Come to the woods, for here is rest.

It is easier to feel than to realize, or in any way explain, Yosemite grandeur. The magnitudes of the rocks and trees and streams are so delicately harmonized, they are mostly hidden.

Here ends my forever memorable first High Sierra excursion. I have crossed the Range of Light, surely the brightest and best of all the Lord has built. And, rejoicing in its glory, I gladly, gratefully, hopefully pray I may see it again.