John Muir Quotes

Be inspired by these John Muir quotes. John Muir was born on April 21, 1838 in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland. Mr. Muir died on December 24, 1914 at the age of 76 in Los Angeles, California, U.S. of pneumonia. John Muir’s career entailed work as an engineer, naturalist, philosopher, writer, botanist, geologist, and environmentalist.

John Muir is known as America’s most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist. He is one of California’s most important historical personalities. He has been called “The Father of our National Parks,” “Wilderness Prophet,” and “Citizen of the Universe.”As early as 1876, he urged the federal government to adopt a forest conservation policy through articles published in popular periodicals. In 1892, he founded the Sierra Club. He served as its first president, a position he held until his death in 1914.

In the same pleasant plan, whales are storehouses of oil for us, to help out the stars in lighting our dark way…
John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, (1916)
Light Quotes

The universe would be incomplete without man; but it would also be incomplete without the smallest transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond our conceitful eyes and knowledge.
John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, (1916)
Knowledge Quotes

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.
John Muir, Mountain Thoughts, written by Muir during the 1870s
Sunshine Quotes

What wonders lie in every mountain day!. . . Crystals of snow, splash of small raindrops, hum of small insects, booming beetles, the jolly rattle of grasshoppers, chirping crickets, the screaming of hawks, jays, and Clark crows …
John Muir, Mountain Thoughts, written by Muir during the 1870s
Mountain Quotes

Beside the grand history of the glaciers and their own, the mountain streams sing the history of every avalanche or earthquake and of snow, all easily recognized by the human ear …
John Muir, Mountain Thoughts, written by Muir during the 1870s
Inspirational Quotes

It seems wonderful that so frail and lovely a plant has such power over human hearts.
John Muir, The Calypso Borealis, circa 1864, from “The Life and Letters of John Muir” by William Frederic Badè, 1924
Love and Life Quotes

Storms of every sort, torrents, earthquakes, cataclysms, “convulsions of nature,” etc., however mysterious and lawless at first sight they may seem, are only harmonious notes in the song of creation, varied expressions of God’s love.
John Muir, The Earthquake, from “Our National Parks” (1901)
God’s Love Quotes

Azure skies and crystal waters find loving recognition, and few there be who would welcome the axe among mountain pines, or would care to apply any correction to the tones and costumes of mountain waterfalls.
John Muir, Steep Trails
Positive Quotes

Nature is a good mother, and sees well to the clothing of her many bairns — birds with smoothly imbricated feathers, beetles with shining jackets, and bears with shaggy furs.
John Muir, Steep Trails (1918)
Nature Quotes

There is always something deeply exciting, not only in the sounds of winds in the woods, … but in their varied waterlike flow as manifested by the movements of the trees …
John Muir, The Mountains of California
Take A Break Quotes

Winds are advertisements of all they touch, however much or little we may be able to read them; telling their wanderings even by their scents alone.
John Muir, The Mountains of California
Cute Quotes

We all travel the milky way together, trees and men; but it never occurred to me … that trees are travelers, in the ordinary sense. They make many journeys, not extensive ones, it is true; but our own little journeys, away and back again, are only little more than tree-wavings ….
John Muir, The Mountains of California
Travel Quotes

Through all the eventful centuries since Christ’s time, and long before that, God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand storms; but he cannot save them from sawmills and fools; this is left to the American people.
John Muir, Save the Redwoods
God Quotes

It took more than three thousand years to make some of the oldest of the Sequoias, trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty, waving and singing in the mighty forests of the Sierra.
John Muir, Save the Redwoods
Beautiful

The weary hours wore away like a mass of unnumbered and half- forgotten years, in which all our other years and experiences were strangely interblended.
John Muir, Snow-Storm on Mount Shasta, (1877)
Experience

The lightnings flashed amid the desolate crags in terrible accord … and seeming to come thudding passionately forth from out the very heart of the storm.
John Muir, Snow-Storm on Mount Shasta, (1877)
Passion

Glorious as are these rocks and waters when jumbled in storm winds … there is a glory that excelleth, when rare conditions of weather meet to make every valley, hollow, gorge, and canon sing with flood waters.
John Muir, The Treasures of the Yosemite
Music Quotes

Fine specimens may be found any night at the foot of the upper Yosemite Fall, glowing gloriously amid the gloomy shadows of the canon whenever there is plenty of moonlight and spray, silent interpreters of the heart-peace of Nature …
John Muir, The Treasures of the Yosemite
Night

The voice of the fall was now low, and the grand flood had waned to floating gauze and thin-broidered folds of linked and arrowy lace-work.
John Muir, The Treasures of the Yosemite
Work Quotes

Of the many advantages of farm life for boys one of the greatest is the gaining a real knowledge of animals as fellow-mortals, leaving to respect them and love them, and even to win some of their love.
John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth
Knowledge

With the first hints of spring came the brave little bluebirds, darling singers as blue as the best sky … every note going straight home into one’s heart. And withal they are hardy and brave, fearless fighters in defense of home.
John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth
Brave Quotes

The sunshine and the winds are working in all the gardens of God …
John Muir, Letters to a Friend, written to Mrs. Ezra S. Carr 1866-1879
God Is Good

It was one of those genial sun-days when flowers and flies come thronging to the light, and birds sing their best.
John Muir, Steep Trails (1918)
Best Quotes

Lake Point, where the shore is gravelly and wholesome and abounds in fine retreating bays … The crystal brightness of the water, the wild flowers, and the lovely mountain scenery make this a favorite summer resort for pleasure and health seekers.
John Muir, Steep Trails (1918)
Health Quotes

Better far and more reasonable it would be to burn our pianos and violins for firewood than to cook our divine midgets of songlarks for food.
John Muir, Protect Our Songbirds, from the John Muir Newsletter , Vol. 1, No. 4, Fall 1991
Compassion

In the course of John Muir’s life, he published six volumes of writings devoted to his explorations of natural settings. After his death, in 1914, four additional books were published. Rod Miller, in “John Muir: Magnificent Tramp” wrote that Muir’s importance stems not from the quantity of his writing but from its quality. Miller notes that Muir’s writings have had a “lasting effect on American culture in helping to create the desire and will to protect and preserve wild and natural environments”.

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