A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. John Burroughs More Quotes by John Burroughs More Quotes From 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 apples hate moon How many thorns of human nature - hard, sharp, lifeless protuberances that tear and wound us, narrow prejudices, bristling conceits that repel and disgust us - are arrested developments, calcified tendencies, buds of promise that should have lifted a branch up into the sunny day with fruit; and flowers to delight the heart of men, but now all grown hard, petrified, for want of culture and a congenial soil and climate. John Burroughs flower heart men [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 iraq law way The spirit of man can endure only so much and when it is broken only a miracle can mend it. John Burroughs miracle broken men Science is a capital or fund perpetually reinvested; it accumulates, rolls up, is carried forward by every new man. Every man of science has all the science before him to go upon, to set himself up in business with. What an enormous sum Darwin availed himself of and reinvested! Not so in literature; to every poet, to every artist, it is still the first day of creation, so far as the essentials of his task are concerned. Literature is not so much a fund to be reinvested as it is a crop to be ever new-grown. John Burroughs men science art The gift of perfume to a flower is a special grace like genius or like beauty, and never becomes common or cheap. John Burroughs smell nature flower 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 environmental mud shoes Life is a struggle, but not a warfare. John Burroughs struggle war life 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 flower ambition sweet 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 fate character lying One summer day, while I was walking along the country road on the farm where I was born, a section of the stone wall opposite me, and not more than three or four yards distant, suddenly fell down. Amid the general stillness and immobility about me the effect was quite startling. ... It was the sudden summing up of half a century or more of atomic changes in the material of the wall. A grain or two of sand yielded to the pressure of long years, and gravity did the rest. John Burroughs wall summer country 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 hymns solitude twilight Natural history is a matter of observation; it is a harvest which you gather when and where you find it growing. Birds and squirrels and flowers are not always in season, but philosophy we have always with us. It is a crop which we can grow and reap at all times and in all places and it has its own value and brings its own satisfaction. John Burroughs flower philosophy science Science sees the process of evolution from the outside, as one might a train of cars going by, and resolves it into the physical and mechanical elements, without getting any nearer the reason of its going by, or the point of its departure or destination. John Burroughs departure car science How readily the bluebirds become our friends and neighbors when we offer them suitable nesting retreats! John Burroughs bluebird retreat neighbor Few persons realize how much of their happiness, such as it is, is dependent upon their work. John Burroughs dependent realizing persons Culture means the perfect and equal development of man on all sides. John Burroughs perfect men mean 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 new-york air two I came from a race of fishers; trout streams gurgled about the roots of my family tree. John Burroughs race roots tree Now is the time of the illuminated woods ... when every leaf glows like a tiny lamp. John Burroughs lamps vision spring
