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 smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.

John Burroughs

wisdom positive inspirational

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

John Burroughs

music health nature

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.

John Burroughs

running positive inspirational

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

nature life lying

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

nature rain life

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

nature opportunity thinking

How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.

John Burroughs

nature beautiful beauty

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.

John Burroughs

birthday inspirational 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

gratitude morning inspirational

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

John Burroughs

sacred doe life

The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon

John Burroughs

nature mind world

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

flower honey book

I want nothing less than a faith founded upon a rock, faith in the constitution of things. The various man-made creeds are fictitious, like the constellations Orion, Cassiopeia’s Chair, the Big Dipper; the only thing real in them is the stars, and the only thing real in the creeds is the soul’s aspiration toward the Infinite.

John Burroughs

stars real men

We are made strong by what we overcome.

John Burroughs

strong overcoming made

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

fire air winter

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

John Burroughs

live-life love-is life

A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did.

John Burroughs

firefighter inspiration wanted

To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday.

John Burroughs

philosophical inspirational life

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

stars moon winter

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.

John Burroughs

motivational love life