During my first years in the Sierra, I was ever calling on everybody within reach to admire them, but I found no one half warm enough until Emerson came. I had read his essays, and felt sure that of all men he would best interpret the sayings of these noble mountains and trees. Nor was my faith weakened when I met him in Yosemite.

— John Muir

Even the sick should try these so-called dangerous passes, because for every unfortunate they kill, they cure a thousand.

— John Muir

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.

— John Muir

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

— John Muir

Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings.

— John Muir

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.

— John Muir

Going to the woods is going home.

— John Muir

Going to the woods is going home, for I suppose we came from the woods originally. But in some of nature's forests, the adventurous traveler seems a feeble, unwelcome creature; wild beasts and the weather trying to kill him, the rank, tangled vegetation, armed with spears and stinging needles, barring his way and making life a hard struggle.

— John Muir

Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.

— John Muir

Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.

— John Muir