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There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.

John Burroughs

We now use the word ‘nature’ very much as our fathers used the word ‘God.’
JOHN BURROUGHS

Father God Must Nature Now Our Use Word
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
Emerson stands apart from the other poets and essayists of New England, and of English literature generally, as of another order.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Another Country Essayist Generally Literature Orde People Stand
How many thorns of human nature are bristling conceits, buds of promise grown sharp for want of congenial climate.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Bristling Bud Climate Concept Congenial Grown Human Many Nature Promise Thorn
The art of the bird is to conceal its nest both as to position and as to material, but now and then it is betrayed into weaving into its structure showy and bizarre bits of this or that, which give its secret away and which seem to violate all the traditions of its kind.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Art Betray Bird Conceal Kind Material Position Secret Tradition Violation Weave
Why, we have invented the whole machinery of the supernatural, with its unseen spirits and powers, good and bad, to account for things, because we found the universal everyday nature too cheap, too common, too vulgar.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Cheap Common Everyday Invent Machinery Nature Universal Vulgar
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
One reason, doubtless, why squirrels are so bold and reckless in leaping through the trees is that, if they miss their hold and fall, they sustain no injury.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Build Doubtless Fall Hold Injury Leap Miss One Reason Reckless Squirrels Sustain Tree
England is not a country of granite and marble, but of chalk, marl, and clay.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Chalk Clay Country Granite Marble Marl
The Infinite cannot be measured. The plan of Nature is so immense, but she has no plan, no scheme, but to go on and on forever. What is size, what is time, distance, to the Infinite?
JOHN BURROUGHS

Cannot Forever Go Immense Infinite Measure Nature Plan Scheme
I have thought that a good test of civilization, perhaps one of the best, is country life.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Benefit Cicilivzation Country Enjoy Good Perhaps Prevail Safe Test
Travel and society polish one, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, and a little moss is a good thing on a man.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Good Little Man Moss Polish Roll Society Stone Thin Travel
Wisdom cannot come by railroad or automobile or aeroplane, or be hurried up by telegraph or telephone.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Automobile Come Furried Railroad Telegraph Telephone Wisdom
One of the most graceful of warriors is the robin. I know few prettier sights than two males challenging and curveting about each other upon the grass in early spring. Their attentions to each other are so courteous and restrained.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Attention Curvet Early Graceful Grass Know Malem Challange Most One Prettier Restrain Sight Spring Warrior
I find that something one gets from Emerson in early life does not leave him when he grows old.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Early Emerson Find Get Grow Leave Old One Something
Man takes root at his feet, and at best, he is no more than a potted plant in his house or carriage till he has established communication with the soil by the loving and magnetic touch of his soles to it.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Carriage Communication Establish Feel House Love Magnetic Man More Plant Potted Soil Sole Take Root Touch

There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.

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There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.

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Popular Authors

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