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As life nears its end with me, I find myself meditating more and more upon the mystery of its nature and origin, yet without the least hope that I can find out the ways of the Eternal in this or in any other world.

John Burroughs

Whitman was Emerson translated from the abstract into the concrete.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Abstract Concrete Translate Whitman
The animal world seizes its food in masses little and big, and often gorges itself with it, but the vegetable, through the agency of the solvent power of water, absorbs its nourishment molecule by molecule.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Absorb Agency Animal Food Gorge Litle Mass Molecule Nourish Power Seize Vegetable World
I seldom go into a natural history museum without feeling as if I were attending a funeral.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Attend Feeling Funeral History Museum Nature Seldom
To still others, who again have their human prototypes, it means a struggle, more or less fierce, to keep soul and body together; while to many insect forms, it means death.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Again Body Death Fierce Human Insect Many Other Prototype Soul Struggle Together
Writing is reporting what we saw after the vision has left us. It is catching the fish which the tide has left far up on our shores in the low and depressed places.
JOHN BURROUGHS

After Catch Depress Fish Left Low Place Report Shore Vision Write
Most birds are very stiff-necked, like the robin, and as they run or hop upon the ground, carry the head as if it were riveted to the body.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Bird Body Carry Ground Hop Most Neck Rite Run Stiff Upon
Without the name, any flower is still more or less a stranger to you. The name betrays its family, its relationship to other flowers, and gives the mind something tangible to grasp. It is very difficult for persons who have had no special training to learn the names of the flowers from the botany.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Flower Less More Name Still Strange Without
The secret of happiness is something to do.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Do Happiness Secret Something
Fear, love, and hunger were the agents that developed the wits of the lower animals, as they were, of course, the prime factors in developing the intelligence of man.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Agent Animal Course Develop Fear Hunger Intelligence Love Lower Man
The naturist must see all things in the light of his experiences in this world.
JOHN BURROUGHS

All Experience Light Naturist See Thing World
You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Always Divine Near Power Source Think True
A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Begin Blame Discourage Else Failure Man Many Somebody Stop Times Try
The building of cities and towns, the cutting down of forests, and the draining of pools and swamps have deprived American birds of their original homes and food supply.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Bird City Country Drain Food Forest Home Pool Supply
The very idea of a bird is a symbol and a suggestion to the poet. A bird seems to be at the top of the scale, so vehement and intense is his life, large-brained, large-lunged, hot, ecstatic, his frame charged with buoyancy and his heart with song.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Bird Buoyancy Ecstatic Frame Heart Idea Intense Large Lung Poet Scale Song Suggestion Symbol Top Vehement
More than any other poet, Whitman is what we make him; more than any other poet, his greatest value is in what he suggests and implies rather than in what he portrays, and more than any other poet must he wait to be understood by the growth of the taste of himself.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Any Great Make More Poet Portray Suggests Understood Value Whitman
To regard the soul and body as one, or to ascribe to consciousness a physiological origin, is not detracting from its divinity; it is rather conferring divinity upon the body.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Body Coinciousnesss Confer Detracting Divinity Physiological Regard Soul Upon
Unadulterated, unsweetened observations are what the real nature-lover craves. No man can invent incidents and traits as interesting as the reality.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Crave Lover Nature Observe Unadulterated Unsweetened
The common bees will never use their sting upon the queen; if she is to be disposed of, they starve her to death, and the queen herself will sting nothing but royalty, nothing but a rival queen.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Bee Common Death Dispose Nothing Queen Rival Royalty String Strive
The queen, I say, is the mother bee; it is undoubtedly complimenting her to call her a queen and invest her with regal authority, yet she is a superb creature and looks every inch a queen.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Authority Call Compliment Creature Invest Look Mother Queen Say Superb Undount
The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place, but a state of mind.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Heaven Kingdom Mind Place State
To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your facts is another.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Another Fact Imagination One Thing Treat
There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Easier Moral Sermon Spark Stone
If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature. And the greatest of these, at least the most constant and always at hand, is nature.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Book Constant Friend Great Life Most Name Nature Precious Resource Three
The dog is often quick to resent a kick, be it from man or beast, but I have never known him to show anger at the door that slammed to and hit him. Probably, if the door held him by his tail or his limb, it would quickly receive the imprint of his teeth.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Anger Beast Dog Door Known Often Probably Quick Resent Show Slam
How many human aspirations are realized in their free, holiday-lives, and how many suggestions to the poet in their flight and song!
JOHN BURROUGHS

Aspiration Flight Free Holiday Human Live Many Poet Realize Song Suggestion
Even in rugged Scotland, nature is scarcely wilder than a mountain sheep, certainly a good way short of the ferity of the moose and caribou.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Caribou Country Ferity Good Mose Mountain Nature Rug Scarcely Sheep Short
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

Always Anything Currency Gold Have Love Must One Patience Pay Price Promise Real Sacrifice Service Work Worth

As life nears its end with me, I find myself meditating more and more upon the mystery of its nature and origin, yet without the least hope that I can find out the ways of the Eternal in this or in any other world.

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As life nears its end with me, I find myself meditating more and more upon the mystery of its nature and origin, yet without the least hope that I can find out the ways of the Eternal in this or in any other world.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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