Quotes from John Burroughs

When nature made the blue-bird she wished to propitiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast.

That which distinguishes this day from all others is that then both orators and artillerymen shoot blank cartridges.

If you think you can do it, you can.

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.

[T]he cold warms me—after a different fashion from that of the kitchen stove.

Literature is an investment of genius which has dividends to all subsequent times.

To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your facts is another.

If we take science as our sole guide, if we accept and hold fast that alone which is verifiable, the old theology must go.

The crow in his purity I believe is seen and heard only in the North. Before you reach the Potomac there is an infusion of a weaker element, the fish-crow, whose helpless feminine call contrasts strongly with the hearty masculine caw of the original Simon.

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring — these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to Literature, summer the tissues and blood.

To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, but to imagine your facts is another.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place, but a state of mind.

Some scenes you juggle two balls, some scenes you juggle three balls, some scenes you can juggle five balls. The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101. Then you start putting layers on top of that.

I have discovered the secret of happiness - it is work, either with the hands or the head. The moment I have something to do, the draughts are open and my chimney draws, and I am happy.

For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice — no paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service.

One is tempted to say that the most human plants, after all, are the weeds.

Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all - that has been my religion.

In what bold relief stand out the lives of all walkers of the snow! The snow is a great tell-tale, and blabs as effectually as it obliterates. I go into the woods, and know all that has happened. I cross the fields, and if only a mouse has visited his neighbor, the fact is chronicled.

I always feel at home where the sugar maple grows.... glorious in autumn, a fountain of coolness in summer, sugar in its veins, gold in its foliage, warmth in its fibers, and health in it the year round.

Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years.

One goes to Nature only for hints and half-truths. Her facts are crude until you have absorbed them or translated them…. It is not so much what we see as what the thing seen suggests.

I seldom go into a natural history museum without feeling as if I were attending a funeral.

[W]hat a severe yet master artist old Winter is.... No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel.