John Burroughs Quotes

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John Burroughs

Profession : Author

Birth : April 3, 1837

There is hardly a man on earth who will take advice unless he is certain that it is positively bad.

John Burroughs

Some men are like nails, very easily drawn; others however are more like rivets never drawn at all.

John Burroughs

One may summon his philosophy when they are beaten in battle, not till then.

John Burroughs

Blessed is the man who has some congenial work, some occupation in which he can put his heart, and which affords a complete outlet to all the forces there are in him.

John Burroughs

It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative.

John Burroughs

The beautiful vagabonds, endowed with every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds - how many human aspirations are realized in their free, holiday-lives, and how many suggestions to the poet in their flight and song!

John Burroughs

I have discovered the secret of happiness. It is work.

John Burroughs

I went to the Lake District to see what kind of a country it could be that would produce a Wordsworth.

John Burroughs

The Nature Lover is not looking for mere facts but for meanings, for something he can translate into terms of his own life.

John Burroughs

We now use the word 'nature' very much as our fathers used the word 'God.'

John Burroughs

When Darwin published his conclusion that man was descended from an apelike ancestor who was again descended from a still lower type, most people were shocked by the thought; it was intensely repugnant to their feelings.

John Burroughs

Why, we have invented the whole machinery of the supernatural, with its unseen spirits and powers, good and bad, to account for things, because we found the universal everyday nature too cheap, too common, too vulgar.

John Burroughs

Women are about the best lovers of nature, after all; at least of nature in her milder and more familiar forms. The feminine character, the feminine perceptions, intuitions, delicacy, sympathy, quickness, are more responsive to natural forms and influences than is the masculine mind.

John Burroughs

If America wishes to preserve her native birds, we must help supply what civilization has taken from them. The building of cities and towns, the cutting down of forests, and the draining of pools and swamps have deprived American birds of their original homes and food supply.

John Burroughs

The naturist must see all things in the light of his experiences in this world.

John Burroughs

Man has climbed up from some lower animal form, but he has, as it were, pulled the ladder up after him.

John Burroughs

I am for 100 per cent Americanism, 100 per cent efficiency, and 100 per cent life. I expect to live to be 100 years old.

John Burroughs

Fear, love, and hunger were the agents that developed the wits of the lower animals, as they were, of course, the prime factors in developing the intelligence of man.

John Burroughs

The trunk of a tree is like a community where only one generation at a time is engaged in active business, the great mass of the population being retired and adding solidity and permanence to the social organism.

John Burroughs

When a herd of cattle see a strange object, they are not satisfied till each one has sniffed it; and the horse is cured of his fright at the robe, or the meal-bag, or other object, as soon as he can be induced to smell it. There is a great deal of speculation in the eye of an animal, but very little science.

John Burroughs