John Burroughs Quotes

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

We are made strong by what we overcome.

The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.

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.

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

Look underfoot. You are always nearer to the true sources of your power than you think. The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Don't despise your own place and hour. Every place is the center of the world.

One of the hardest lessons we have to learn in this life, and one that many persons never learn, is to see the divine, the celestial, the pure, in the common, the near at hand-to see that heaven lies about us here in this world.

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

I am in love with this world . . . I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.

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.

The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world.

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

Love is the measure of life; only so far as we love do we really live.

We cannot walk through life on mountain peaks.

Without death and decay, how could life go on?

Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.

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.

Happiness comes most to persons who seek it least and think least about it. It is not an object to be sought, it is a state to be induced. It must follow and not lead. It must overtake you, and not you overtake it.

The place to observe nature is where you are.

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.

If you think you can do it, you can.

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.

If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature.

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