This collection of John Muir quotes is drawn from the works of one of the greatest adventurers in history. Here, we've collated 50 of the best quotes by John Muir.
John Muir
John Muir is one of the most influential explorers, adventurers, naturalists and writers to have ever lived. Born in Scotland, he emigrated to the United States with his family in 1849 at the age of 11.
To say that John Muir had an interesting life is an understatement. Leaving University, he traveled and odd-jobbed his way through the Northern USA and Canada.
A Life of Adventure
After suffering an eye injury which nearly blinded him in 1867, he recovered and seemed to embrace a life of adventure and wanderlust fully.
Various adventures included a 1000 mile hike, sailing trips to different parts of the world, and expeditions into the Great Outdoors both short and long.
In the later years of his life, the number of articles and books he had written started to accumulate, so it is no surprise that there are an endless amount of quotes by John Muir that still inspire to this day.
Would you like to find out more about John Muir? Check out this interesting biography available via Amazon: The Life of John Muir.
Collection of Quotes by John Muir
This list of the best John Muir quotes includes some of his most famous quotes as well as some lesser known ones.
They are perfect inspiration for anyone that loves the Great Outdoors, and wants to feed their wanderlust.
Best John Muir Quotes
“I ran home in the moonlight with firm strides; for the sun-love made me strong.”
“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.”
“Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.”
– John Muir
“Every natural object is a conductor of divinity and only by coming into contact with them… may we be filled with the Holy Ghost.”
– John Muir
“And into the woods I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”
― John Muir
“There is nothing more eloquent in Nature than a mountain stream.”
― John Muir
“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”
– John Muir
“Nothing truly wild is unclean.”
― John Muir
“Raindrops blossom brilliantly in the rainbow, and change to flowers in the sod, but snow comes in full flower direct from the dark, frozen sky.”
― John Muir
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“One can make a day of any size and regulate the rising and setting of his own sun and the brightness of its shining.”
– John Muir
“How narrow we selfish conceited creatures are in our sympathies! How blind to the rights of all the rest of creation!”
― John Muir
There is a love of wild Nature in everybody, an ancient mother-love ever showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties.
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Inspiring John Muir Mountain Quotes
It's easy to see why John Muir's words still resonate with us today. They evoke images of a more natural balance between man and nature.
Here's our next 10 quotes by John Muir.
“Wilderness is a necessity… there must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls…”
– John Muir
“Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings.”
― John Muir
“Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.”
– John Muir
“When California was wild, it was the floweriest part of the continent.”
– John Muir
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“It seems supernatural, but only because it is not understood.”
― John Muir
Wherever there were glaciers, the world was in a constant state of creation.”
“Society speaks and all men listen, mountains speak and wise men listen.”
― John Muir
“The snow is melting into music.”
― John Muir
“The battle for conservation must go on endlessly. It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong.”
― John Muir
“The sun shines not on us but in us.”
― John Muir
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees.
John Muir Quotes
John Muir was arguably one of the greatest adventurers in history. But it was using his writing skills that he touched people all around the world.
Here is our next section of famous wilderness quotes and sayings by John Muir.
“Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away.”
― John Muir
“Most people are on the world, not in it.”
― John Muir
“The deeper the solitude the less the sense of loneliness, and the nearer our friends.”
“I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness.”
― John Muir
“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
– John Muir
“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!”
– John Muir
“Who wouldn’t be a mountaineer! Up here all the world’s prizes seem nothing”
― John Muir
“One day’s exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books.”
― John Muir
“Rivers flow not past, but through us; tingling, vibrating, exciting every cell and fiber in our bodies, making them sing and glide.”
“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”
― John Muir
Muir Quotes
His experiences in nature and the wilderness gave John Muir a unique perspective of man and nature. In his heart, he wished that people would embrace the outdoors more. Do you agree with him?
“Not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress…”
― John Muir
“I am well again, I came to life in the cool winds and crystal waters of the mountains.”
– John Muir
“What a psalm the storm was singing, and how fresh the smell of the washed earth and leaves, and how sweet the still small voices of the storm!”
― John Muir
“God never made an ugly landscape. All that sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild.”
– John Muir
“Look up and down and round about you.!”
– John Muir
“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.”
― John Muir
“Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts . . .”
– John Muir
“When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world.”
― John Muir
“It is easier to feel than to realize, or in any way explain, Yosemite grandeur. The magnitudes of the rocks and trees and streams are so delicately harmonized, they are mostly hidden.”
– John Muir
“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”
― John Muir
Outdoor Quotes
This is our final section of quotes and sayings by John Muir. Interested in even more travel inspiration? You'll love our travel quotes collections listed at the end of this post!
“I bade adieu to mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.”
– John Muir
“Most people who travel look only at what they are directed to look at. Great is the power of the guidebook maker, however ignorant.”
– John Muir
“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
– John Muir
“Wherever we go in the mountains, or indeed in any of God’s wild fields, we find more than we seek.”
― John Muir
“At the touch of this divine light, the mountains seemed to kindle to a rapt, religious consciousness, and stood hushed like devout worshippers waiting to be blessed.”
“Another glorious day, the air as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue; indeed the body seems one palate, and tingles equally throughout.”
― John Muir
“I never saw a discontented tree.”
― John Muir
“One must labor for beauty as for bread.”
― John Muir
“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”
― John Muir
“Fortunately wrong cannot last. Soon or late it must fall back home to Hades, while some compensating good must surely follow.”
― John Muir
“Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life.”
― John Muir
None of Nature's landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild.
— John Muir
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“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; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. Awakening from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix and enrich their own little ongoings with those of Nature, and to get rid of rust and disease.”
― John Muir