Top 6 Quotes by John Wesley Powell

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail.

John Wesley Powell

Art, Illustration, Speech

John Wesley Powell (2008). “Canyons of the Colorado”, p.394, Cosimo, Inc.

We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.

John Wesley Powell

Running, Wall, Distance

John Wesley Powell (2003). “The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons”, p.268, Penguin

We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore.

John Wesley Powell

Running, Distance, Rivers

John Wesley Powell (2003). “The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons”, p.268, Penguin

You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted, but to see it you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths.

John Wesley Powell

Views, Labyrinth, Toil

John Wesley Powell (2008). “Canyons of the Colorado”, p.397, Cosimo, Inc.

The landscape everywhere, away from the river, is of rock - cliffs of rock; plateaus of rock; terraces of rock; crags of rock - ten thousand strangely carved forms.

John Wesley Powell

Rocks, Rivers, Landscape

Smithsonian Institution, John Wesley Powell, Almon Harris Thompson, Elliott Coues, George Brown Goode (1875). “Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries: Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, Under the Direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution”, p.55