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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

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
As with other phases of nature, I have probably loved the rocks more than I have studied them.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Nature Other Phase Probably Rock Study
Robin is one of the most native and democratic of our birds; he is one of the family, and seems much nearer to us than those rare, exotic visitants, as the orchard starling or rose-breasted grossbeak, with their distant, high-bred ways.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Breasted Bred Democratic Distant Family Grossbeak High Native Orchard Rose Starling Ways
I am sure I was an evolutionist in the abstract, or by the quality and complexion of my mind, before I read Darwin, but to become an evolutionist in the concrete, and accept the doctrine of the animal origin of man, has not for me been an easy matter.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Abstract Comoextion Concrete Doctrine Each Man Matter Origin People Quality Revolution Sure
I have discovered the secret of happiness – it is work, either with the hands or the head.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Discover Either Hand Happiness Head Secret Work
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
Nearly every season, I make the acquaintance of one or more new flowers. It takes years to exhaust the botanical treasures of any one considerable neighborhood, unless one makes a dead set at it, like an herbalist.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Acquaintance Botanical Early Every Exhaust Flower More Neighborhood New Season Treasure
In October, a maple tree before your window lights up your room like a great lamp. Even on cloudy days, its presence helps to dispel the gloom.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Cloud Dispel Great Help Lamp Light Maple October Room Window
All birds are incipient or would-be songsters in the spring. I find corroborative evidence of this even in the crowing of the cock.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Bird Cook Corroborative Crow Evidence Incipient Spring
My life has been a fortunate one; I was born under a lucky star. It seems as if both wind and tide had favoured me.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Both Favorite Fortunate Life Lucky Seem Star Tide Under
The homing instinct in birds and animals is one of their most remarkable traits: their strong local attachments and their skill in finding their way back when removed to a distance.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Animal Attachment Back Bird Distance Find Home Instinct Remove Strong Treat
My motto is never to try to imitate anybody: I have always looked inward and followed the inward voice.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Anybody Follow Imitate Inward Look Motto Try Voice
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Heal Nature Order Put Sense Soothed
Nature furnishes the conditions – the solitude – and the soul furnishes the entertainment.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Condition Entertainment Furnish Nature Solitude Soul
The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Better Deed Greatest Intention Small
The trunk of a tree is like a community where only one generation at a time is engaged in active business, the great mass of the population being retired and adding solidity and permanence to the social organism.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Active Business Community Engage Generation Like Time Tree Trunk

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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