John Muir Quotes

I’d rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than in church thinking about the mountains.

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.

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

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.

The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.

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.

Hiking - I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, "A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them."

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.

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

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.

Wilderness is a necessity... there must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls.

Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life.

To sit in solitude, to think in solitude with only the music of the stream and the cedar to break the flow of silence, there lies the value of wilderness.

The mountains are calling and I must go.

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.

The radiance in some places is so great as to be fairly dazzling... every crystal, every flower a window opening into heaven, a mirror reflecting the Creator.

The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.

Come to the woods, for here is rest.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.

Look! Nature is overflowing with the grandeur of God!

In this silent, serene wilderness the weary can gain a heart-bath in perfect peace.

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

Wherever we go in the mountains, we find more than we seek.

The sun shines not on us but in us.

In the eternal youth of Nature, you may renew your own.