"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Philosophers from the United StatesEssayists from the United StatesPhilosophers from ScotlandNaturalists from the United StatesEssayists from Scotland
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Terry Gifford, EWDB, pages 243-244
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Muir
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
John Muir
John Muir (21 April 1838 – 24 December 1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservat
172 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by John Muir →
Related Quotes
"John Muir, Earth — planet, Universe"
"We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore an…"
"Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where…"
"Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, inciting at once to work and rest! Days in whose light everything se…"
"So extravagant is Nature with her choicest treasures, spending plant beauty as she spends sunshine, pouring it forth …"
"This time it is real — all must die, and where could mountaineer find a more glorious death!"
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
"Another glorious day, the air as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue."
"Everything is flowing — going somewhere, animals and so-called lifeless rocks as well as water. Thus the snow flows f…"
"I did find Calypso — but only once, far in the depths of the very wildest of Canadian dark woods, near those high, co…"