18 John Muir Quotes to Deepen your Connection with Nature

Born on April 21, 1838 in Dunbar, Scotland, John Muir was a naturalist, inventor, explorer, writer, and advocate of U.S. forest conservation.

Growing up with a strict father, Muir and his brother barely had any spare time as their dad would make everyone work all day long. While working, Muir loved to roam the woods and observe the natural world; soon he became more and more curious about it.

As an inventor, he used to carve practical mechanisms in wood and eventually received recognition for his handmade clocks and thermometers.

Muir’s Studies in the Sierra along with other great writings describing his adventures in nature built him a successful career as a writer. By placing nature above human culture and civilization, Muir helped preserve the Yosemite Valley and the Sequoia National Park.

A true activist who constantly taught people about the beauty of nature and the importance of protecting it, Muir remains an inspiration for nature lovers and those who advocate the preservation and restoration of the natural environment.

Here are 18 John Muir quotes that inspire love for nature.

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.

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.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

God never made an ugly landscape. All that sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild.

I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

The mountains are calling and I must go.

Earth has no sorrow that earth cannot heal.

Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.

The world, we are told, was made especially for man — a presumption not supported by all the facts.

The sun shines not on us but in us.

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.

Yet how hard most people work for mere dust and ashes and care, taking no thought of growing in knowledge and grace, never having time to get in sight of their own ignorance.

The battle for conservation will go on endlessly. It is part of the universal battle between right and wrong.