110+ John Burroughs Quotes On Education, My Block And Elm Street

John Burroughs was an American author and naturalist who wrote about the natural world and his experiences in nature. He is best known for his essays, which were published in numerous collections throughout his lifetime. He was an advocate for the conservation of nature and a major influence on the modern environmental movement. Following is our collection on famous quotes by John Burroughs on education, life, leadership.

Top 10 John Burroughs Quotes

1. The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.
2. A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.
3. 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.
4. How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.
5. 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.
6. I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
7. To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday.
8. 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.
9. The secret of happiness is something to do.
10. In winter the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity.

John Burroughs Image Quotes

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. — John Burroughs

John Burroughs Short Quotes

• One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: ‘To rise above little things’.
• O bluebird, welcome back again, Thy azure coat and ruddy vest, Are hues that April loveth best.
• A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did.
• Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all -- that has been my religion.
• How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.
• To me - old age is always ten years older than I am.
• The spirit of man can endure only so much and when it is broken only a miracle can mend it.
• The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.
• We can outrun the wind and the storm, but we cannot outrun the demon of hurry.
• The floating vapour is just as true an illustration of the law of gravity as the falling avalanche.

John Burroughs Quotes About Life

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. — John Burroughs

I am in love with this world . . . 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

One of the hardest lessons we have to learn in this life, and one that many persons never learn, is to see the divine, the celestial, the pure, in the common, the near at hand-to see that heaven lies about us here in this world. — John Burroughs

It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it. — 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

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

I still find each day too short. — John Burroughs

Life is a struggle, but not a warfare. — John Burroughs

We cannot walk through life on mountain peaks. — John Burroughs

Sometimes I am worried by the thought of the effect that life in the city will have on coming generations. — John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes About Love

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

I am in love with this world. It has been my home. It has been my point of outlook into the universe. I have never bruised myself against it nor tried to use it ignobly. — John Burroughs

As with other phases of nature, I have probably loved the rocks more than I have studied them. — John Burroughs

We love the sight of the brown and ruddy earth; it is the color of life, while a snow-covered plain is the face of death. Yet snow is but the mask of the life-giving rain; it, too, is the friend of man, the tender, sculpturesque, immaculate, warming, fertilizing snow. — John Burroughs

Love is the measure of life; only so far as we love do we really live. — 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

To see Earth fully we already need to love it — John Burroughs

The love of nature is a different thing from the love of science, though the two may go together. — John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes About Nature

Look underfoot. You are always nearer to the true sources of your power than you think. The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Don't despise your own place and hour. Every place is the center of the world. — John Burroughs

The gift of perfume to a flower is a special grace like genius or like beauty, and never becomes common or cheap. — John Burroughs

The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world. — John Burroughs

I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey. — John Burroughs

Nature is not benevolent; Nature is just, gives pound for pound, measure for measure, makes no exceptions, never tempers her decrees with mercy, or winks at any infringement of her laws. — John Burroughs

Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral. — John Burroughs

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

Nature will not be conquered, but gives herself freely to her true lover - to him who revels with her, bathes in her seas, sails her rivers, camps in her woods, and with no mercenary ends, accepts all. — John Burroughs

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

The art of nature is all in the direction of concealment. — John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes About Observations

Unadulterated, unsweetened observations are what the real nature-lover craves. No man can invent incidents and traits as interesting as the reality. — John Burroughs

The place to observe nature is where you are. — John Burroughs

Naturalists, like poets, are born and then made only by years of painstaking observation. — John Burroughs

In the printed page the only real things are the paper and the ink; the white spaces play the same part in aiding the eye to take in the meaning of the print as do the black letters. — John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes About Birds

If you want to see birds, you must have birds in your heart. — John Burroughs

In New York and New England the sap starts up in the sugar maple the very day the bluebird arrives, and sugar-making begins forthwith. The bird is generally a mere disembodied voice; a rumor in the air for two or three days before it takes visible shape before you. — John Burroughs

All birds are incipient or would-be songsters in the spring. I find corroborative evidence of this even in the crowing of the cock. — John Burroughs

The art of the bird is to conceal its nest both as to position and as to material, but now and then it is betrayed into weaving into its structure showy and bizarre bits of this or that, which give its secret away and which seem to violate all the traditions of its kind. — John Burroughs

Robin is one of the most native and democratic of our birds; he is one of the family, and seems much nearer to us than those rare, exotic visitants, as the orchard starling or rose-breasted grossbeak, with their distant, high-bred ways. — John Burroughs

August is the month of the high-sailing hawks. The hen hawk is the most noticeable. He likes the haze and calm of these long, warm days. He is a bird of leisure and seems always at his ease. How beautiful and majestic are his movements! — 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

Most birds are very stiff-necked, like the robin, and as they run or hop upon the ground, carry the head as if it were riveted to the body. Not so the oven-bird, or the other birds that walk, as the cow-bunting, or the quail, or the crow. They move the head forward with the movement of the feet. — John Burroughs

The very idea of a bird is a symbol and a suggestion to the poet. A bird seems to be at the top of the scale, so vehement and intense is his life, large-brained, large-lunged, hot, ecstatic, his frame charged with buoyancy and his heart with song. — John Burroughs

The homing instinct in birds and animals is one of their most remarkable traits: their strong local attachments and their skill in finding their way back when removed to a distance. It seems at times as if they possessed some extra sense - the home sense - which operates unerringly. — John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes About Winter

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter. — John Burroughs

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 the blood. — John Burroughs

What a severe yet master artist old Winter is... No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel. — John Burroughs

If the October days were a cordial like the sub-acids of fruit, these are a tonic like the wine of iron. Drink deep or be careful how you taste this December vintage. The first sip may chill, but a full draught warms and invigorates. — John Burroughs

A sap run is the sweet goodbye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost. — John Burroughs

All sounds are sharper in winter; the air transmits better. At night I hear more distinctly the steady roar of the North Mountain. In summer it is a sort of complacent purr, as the breezes stroke down its sides; but in winter always the same low, sullen growl. — John Burroughs

All sounds are sharper in winter; the air transmits better. — John Burroughs

Before the bud swells, before the grass springs, before the plough is started, comes the sugar harvest. It is sequel of the bitter frost; a sap run is the sweet goodbye of winter. — John Burroughs

England is like the margin of a spring-run: near its source, always green, always cool, always moist, comparatively free from frost in winter and from drought in summer. — John Burroughs

The country is more of a wilderness, more of a wild solitude, in the winter than in the summer. The wild comes out. The urban, the cultivated, is hidden or negatived. — John Burroughs

John Burroughs Quotes About Mind

Nothing relieves and ventilates the mind like a resolution. — John Burroughs

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

I think rain is as necessary to the mind as to vegetation. My very thoughts become thirsty, and crave the moisture. — 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

My books are, in a way, a record of my life - that part of it that came to flower and fruit in my mind. — John Burroughs

Next to the laborer in the fields, the walker holds the closest relation to the soil; and he holds a closer and more vital relation to nature because he is freer and his mind more at leisure. — John Burroughs

Without the name, any flower is still more or less a stranger to you. The name betrays its family, its relationship to other flowers, and gives the mind something tangible to grasp. It is very difficult for persons who have had no special training to learn the names of the flowers from the botany. — John Burroughs

I am sure I was an evolutionist in the abstract, or by the quality and complexion of my mind, before I read Darwin, but to become an evolutionist in the concrete, and accept the doctrine of the animal origin of man, has not for me been an easy matter. — John Burroughs

John Burroughs Famous Quotes And Sayings

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. — John Burroughs

The honey-bee's great ambition is to be rich, to lay up great stores, to possess the sweet of every flower that blooms. She is more than provident. Enough will not satisfy her, she must have all she can get by hook or crook. — John Burroughs

The bluebird enjoys the preeminence of being the first bit of color that cheers our northern landscape. The other birds that arrive about the same time--the sparrow, the robin, the phoebe-bird--are clad in neutral tints, gray, brown, or russet; but the bluebird brings one of the primary hues and the divinest of them all. — John Burroughs

Travel and society polish one, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, and a little moss is a good thing on a man. — John Burroughs

A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying. — John Burroughs

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

Serene, I fold my hands and wait, Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea; I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, For lo! my own shall come to me. — John Burroughs

Every walk to the woods is a religious rite, every bath in the stream is a saving ordinance. Communion service is at all hours, and the bread and wine are from the heart and marrow of Mother Earth. — John Burroughs

The International Court of Justice (a.k.a. World Court) is the judicial branch of the United Nations and in the early 1990's a campaign started and it was supported by civil society non-governmental groups around the world. — John Burroughs

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. — John Burroughs

Oh, Spring is surely coming, Her couriers fill the air; Each morn are new arrivals, Each night her ways prepare; I scent her fragrant garments, Her foot is on the stair. — John Burroughs

How readily the bluebirds become our friends and neighbors when we offer them suitable nesting retreats! — John Burroughs

To the scientist Nature is a storehouse of facts, laws, processes; to the artist she is a storehouse of pictures; to the poet she is a storehouse of images, fancies, a source of inspiration; to the moralist she is a storehouse of precepts and parables; to all she may be a source of knowledge and joy. — John Burroughs

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. — John Burroughs

Few persons realize how much of their happiness is dependent upon their work, upon the fact that they are busy and not left to feed upon themselves. Blessed is the person who has some congenial work, some occupation in which to place one's heart, and which affords a complete outlet to all the forces that are in him or her. — John Burroughs

The Universe is a pretty big place... And the one thing I know about nature is it hates to waste anything. So I guess I'd say if it is just us, an awful lot of space is going to waste. The earth is not alone, it is not like a single apple on a tree; there are many apples on the tree, and there are many trees in the orchard. — John Burroughs

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. — John Burroughs

For two summers not a blue wing, not a blue warble. I seemed to miss something kindred and precious from my environment--the visible embodiment of the tender sky and wistful soil. What a loss, I said, to coming generations of dwellers in the country--no bluebird in spring! — John Burroughs

The rocks are not so close akin to us as the soil; they are one more remove from us; but they lie back of all, and are the final source of all. ... Time, geologic time, looks out at us from the rocks as from no other objects in the landscape. — John Burroughs

Literature is an investment of genius which pays dividends to all subsequent times. — John Burroughs

[Theodore Roosevelt] was a naturalist on the broadest grounds, uniting much technical knowledge with knowledge of the daily lives and habits of all forms of wild life. He probably knew tenfold more natural history than all the presidents who had preceded him, and, I think one is safe in saying, more human history also. — John Burroughs

In October, a maple tree before your window lights up your room like a great lamp. Even on cloudy days, its presence helps to dispel the gloom. — John Burroughs

The fuel in the earth will be exhausted in a thousand or more years, and its mineral wealth, but man will find substitutes for these in the winds, the waves, the sun's heat, and so forth. — John Burroughs

The only countries that are outside of [ Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] are Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea withdrew in the last few years. — John Burroughs

Temperament lies behind mood; behind will, lies the fate of character. Then behind both, the influence of family the tyranny of culture; and finally the power of climate and environment; and we are free, only to the extent we rise above these. — 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

Culture means the perfect and equal development of man on all sides. — John Burroughs

The poor old earth which has mothered us and nursed us we treat with scant respect. Our awe and veneration we reserve for the worlds we know not of. Our senses sell us out. The mud on our shoes disenchants us. — John Burroughs

[Invading Iraq] is not the best way to make a safer world in which the United States would be a responsible partner, but it also goes against the role of law in the United States. — John Burroughs

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

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

The countries outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty also are bound by that obligation [ Article Six of the treaty] according to, at least it's a strong implication of, a 1996 opinion of the International Court of Justice. — John Burroughs

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

Look up at the miracle of the falling snow,—the air a dizzy maze of whirling, eddying flakes, noiselessly transforming the world, the exquisite crystals dropping in ditch and gutter, and disguising in the same suit of spotless livery all objects upon which they fall. — John Burroughs

Somewhat by historical happenstance the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China - also were the original five countries to have nuclear weapons. — John Burroughs

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

One can only learn his powers of action by action, and his powers of thought by thinking — John Burroughs

The pond-lily is a star and easily takes the first place among lilies; and the expeditions to her haunts, and the gathering her where she rocks upon the dark, secluded waters of some pool or lakelet, are the crown and summit of the floral expeditions of summer. — John Burroughs

The common bees will never use their sting upon the queen; if she is to be disposed of, they starve her to death, and the queen herself will sting nothing but royalty, nothing but a rival queen. — John Burroughs

Unfortunately, nuclear weapons have become identified with state power. — John Burroughs

I am not going to advocate ... the abandoning of the improved modes of travel; but I am going to brag as lustily as I can on behalf of the pedestrian, and show how all the shining angels second and accompany the man who goes afoot, while all the dark spirits are ever looking out for a chance to ride. — John Burroughs

The animal world seizes its food in masses little and big, and often gorges itself with it, but the vegetable, through the agency of the solvent power of water, absorbs its nourishment molecule by molecule. — John Burroughs

Even in rugged Scotland, nature is scarcely wilder than a mountain sheep, certainly a good way short of the ferity of the moose and caribou. — John Burroughs

The court was unable to rule on all circumstances in which nuclear weapons might be used, and it said in view of the problems, the risks posed by nuclear weapons, and in view of the lack of certainty of the law in all circumstances, the best course is fulfilling the obligation of good faith negotiations of nuclear disarmament contained in the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. — John Burroughs

Science makes no claim to infallibility; it leaves that claim to be made by theologians. — John Burroughs

You cannot cause disproportionate damage to the environment; you cannot harm neutral states. The court said that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is generally contrary to the international law of armed conflict. — John Burroughs

One reason, doubtless, why squirrels are so bold and reckless in leaping through the trees is that, if they miss their hold and fall, they sustain no injury. Every species of tree-squirrel seems to be capable of a sort of rudimentary flying, at least of making itself into a parachute, so as to ease or break a fall or a leap from a great height. — John Burroughs

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

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

Time does not become sacred to us until we have lived it. — John Burroughs

Mounting toward the upland again, I pause reverently, as the hush and stillness of twilight come upon the woods. It is the sweetest, ripest hour of the day. And as the hermit's evening hymn goes up from the deep solitude below me, I experience that serene exaltation of sentiment of which music, literature, and religion are but the faint types and symbols. — John Burroughs

It doesn't seem to be that huge a commitment that would create, you know, some kind of really powerful constituency. But the history has been for the United States and Russia especially that nuclear weapons have kind of become part of the identity of the countries. — John Burroughs

In the order of nature we may behold the ways of the Eternal. — 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

There is a condition or circumstance that has a greater bearing upon the happiness of life than any other. What is it? Something to do; some congenial work. Take away the occupation of all people and what a wretched world it would be. — John Burroughs

I came from a race of fishers; trout streams gurgled about the roots of my family tree. — John Burroughs

I crave and seek a natural explanation of all phenomena upon this earth, but the word 'natural' to me implies more than mere chemistry and physics. The birth of a baby and the blooming of a flower are natural events, but the laboratory methods forever fail to give us the key to the secret of either. — John Burroughs

Life Lessons by John Burroughs

1. John Burroughs taught that life should be lived with a sense of wonder and appreciation for the natural world. He encouraged us to take time to observe and appreciate the beauty of the world around us.
2. He also believed that we should strive to live in harmony with nature and to be mindful of our impact on the environment.
3. Finally, Burroughs taught us to be open to new experiences and to embrace change as a part of life. He encouraged us to be curious and to explore new ideas and perspectives.