John Burroughs Quotes

I was born with a chronic anxiety about the weather.
John Burroughs
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.
John Burroughs
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.
John Burroughs
Few persons realize how much of their happiness such as it is is dependent upon their work.
John Burroughs
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.
John Burroughs
Serene I fold my hands and wait.
John Burroughs
How beautifully the leaves grow old. How full of light and colour are their last days.
John Burroughs
The kingdom of heaven in not a place but a state of mind.
John Burroughs
Man takes root at his feet, and at best he is no more than a potted plant in his house or carriage till he has established communication with the soil by the loving and magnetic touch of his soles to it.
John Burroughs
You can fail many times, but you're not a failure until you begin to blame somebody else.
John Burroughs
Summer is more wooing and seductive, more versatile and human, appeals to the affections and the sentiments, and fosters inquiry and the art impulse. Winter is of a more heroic cast, and addresses the intellect. The severe studies and disciplines come easier in winter. One imposes larger tasks upon himself, and is less tolerant of his own weaknesses...The simplicity of winter has a deep moral. The return of nature, after such a career of splendor and prodigality, to habits so simple and austere, is not lost either upon the head or the heart. It is the philosopher coming back from the banquet and the wine to a cup of water and a crust of bread.
John Burroughs
Nature we have always with us, an in exhaustible store-house of that which moves the heart, appeals to the mind and fires the imagination -- health to the body, a stimulus to the intellect, and joy to the soul.
John Burroughs
I am in love with this world... I have tilled its soil, I have gathered its harvest, I have waited upon its seasons, and always have I reaped what I have sown. 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.
John Burroughs
I go to books and to nature as the bee goes to a flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.
John Burroughs
The universe is so unhuman, that is, it goes its way with so little thought of man. He is but an incident, not an end. We must adjust our notions to the discovery that things are not shaped to him, but that he is shaped to them. The air was not made for his lungs, but he has lungs because there is air; the light was not created for his eye, but he has eyes because there is light. All the forces of nature are going their own way; man avails himself of them, or catches a ride as best he can. If he keeps his seat, he prospers; if he misses his hold and falls, he is crushed.
John Burroughs
The universe is so unhuman, that is, it goes its way with so little thought of man. He is but an incident, not an end. We must adjust our notions to the discovery that things are not shaped to him, but that he is shaped to them. The air was not made for his lungs, but he has lungs because there is air; the light was not created for his eye, but he has eyes because there is light. All the forces of nature are going their own way; man avails himself of them, or catches a ride as best he can. If he keeps his seat, he prospers; if he misses his hold and falls, he is crushed.
John Burroughs
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. The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world.
John Burroughs
To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday.
John Burroughs
One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: ‘To rise above little things’.
John Burroughs
The secret of happiness is something to do
John Burroughs
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.
John Burroughs
Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.
John Burroughs