Get out and explore!
By Lindsey Matthews — Written on Oct 02, 2020
Though we may not be able to travel like we're used to right now thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, you can at least read these John Muir quotes to soothe your adventurous soul.
John Muir’s legacy has been inspiring us to get outdoors for decades. Best known as a naturalist and the Father of the National parks, his natural zest for the wilderness has been an inspiration to all.
Best John Muir Quotes
If you can't get out of the city physically, these quotes will help you do it mentally!
1. “Wherever we go in the mountains, we find more than we seek.” — John Muir
2. “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” — John Muir
3. “The world is big and I want to get a good look at it before it gets dark.” — John Muir
4. “The clearest way into the universe is through a forest of wilderness.” — John Muir
5. “Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature’s darlings.” — John Muir
6. “The mountains are calling, and I must go.” — John Muir
7. “One day’s exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books.” — John Muir
8. “The power of imagination makes us infinite.” — John Muir
9. “I am well again. I came to life in the cool winds and crystal waters of the mountains.” — John Muir
10. “How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!” — John Muir
11. “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” — John Muir
12. “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.” — John Muir
13. “Keep close to nature’s heart … and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” — John Muir
14. “Every natural object is a conductor of divinity and only by coming into contact with them … may we be filled with the holy ghost.” — John Muir
15. “Rock and waters, etc., are words of God, and so are men. We all flow from one fountain soul. All are expressions of one love.” — John Muir
16. “The morning stars still sing together, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful every day.” — John Muir
17. “None of nature’s landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild.” — John Muir
18. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” — John Muir
19. “Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods.” — John Muir
20. “I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” — John Muir
21. “We all travel the milky way together, trees and men.” — John Muir
22. “Going to the mountains is going home.” — John Muir
23. “Who wouldn’t be a mountaineer! Up here the world’s prizes seem nothing.” — John Muir
24. “In our best times everything turns into religion, all the world seems a church and the mountains altars.” — John Muir
25. “The sun shines not on us, but in us.” — John Muir
26. “Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.” — John Muir
27. “Nothing truly wild is unclean.” — John Muir
28. “I care to live only to entice people to look at nature’s loveliness.” — John Muir
29. “And into the woods I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” — John Muir
30. “I never saw a discontented tree.” — John Muir\
31. “Wherever there were glaciers, the world was in a constant state of creation.” — John Muir
32. “Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life.” — John Muir
33. “Most people who travel look only at what they are directed to look at. Great is the power of the guidebook maker, however ignorant.” — John Muir
34. “One of the best ways to see tree flowers is to climb one of the tallest trees and to get into close, tingling touch with them, and then look broad.” — John Muir
35. “Raindrops blossom brilliantly in the rainbow, and change to flowers in the sod, but snow comes in full flower direct from the dark, frozen sky.” — John Muir
36. “Rivers flow not past, but through us; tingling, vibrating, exciting every cell and fiber in our bodies, making them sing and glide.” — John Muir
37. “Not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress.” — John Muir
38. “Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings.” — John Muir
39. “God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fool.” — John Muir
40. “Look up and down and round about you!” — John Muir
41. “Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts.” — John Muir
42. “Yet through all this stress the forest is maintained in marvelous beauty.” — John Muir
43. “Take a course in good water and air, and in the eternal youth of nature you may renew your own.” — John Muir
44. “Nothing dollarable is safe.” — John Muir
45. “When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe.” — John Muir
46. “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.” — John Muir
47. “Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountain tops are within reach.” — John Muir
48. “Allow nature’s peace to flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.” — John Muir
49. “Feast on sunlight!” — John Muir
50. “Let go of your cares like autumn leaves.” — John Muir
More for You:
Lindsey Matthews is a writer who covers love and relationships, news, and pop-culture topics.