black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

I went to the Lake District to see what kind of a country it could be that would produce a Wordsworth.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Country District Lake Produce See Wordsworth
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 birth of a baby and the blooming of a flower are natural events, but the laboratory methods forever fail to give us the key to the secret of either.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Baby Birth Bloom Either Event Flower Forever Give Key Laboratory Method Secret
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 spirit of man can endure only so much and when it is broken only a miracle can mend it.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Broken Endure Man Mend Miracle Much Only Spirit
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
The geologist is pretty sure to be an evolutionist.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Exolutionist Geologist Pretty Sure
I have suffered no great losses, or defeats, or illness, or accidents, and have undergone no great struggles or privations; I have had no grouch. I have not wanted the earth.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Accident Defeat Earth Great Grouch Illness Loss Privation Struggle Suffer Undergone Want
If one gains an interest in the history of the earth, he is quite sure to gain an interest in the history of the life on the earth. If the former illustrates the theory of development, so must the latter.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Development Earth Form Gain History Internet Latter One Surem Quite Theory
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
To be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Bird Elate Life might Nest Reward Simple Spring Thrill Wildflower
Where country life is safe and enjoyable, where many of the conveniences and appliances of the town are joined to the large freedom and large benefits of the country, a high state of civilization prevails.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Appliance Benefit Convenience Country Enjoy Freedom High Join Safe Statem Civilization Town
There is a great deal of speculation in the eye of an animal, but very little science.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Animal Deal Eye Great Little Science Speculation
There is something very human in this apparent mirth and mockery of the squirrels. It seems to be a sort of ironical laughter, and implies self-conscious pride and exultation in the laughter.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Apparent Conscious Execution Human Ironical Laugh Pride Self Something Sort Squirrels
England is like the margin of a spring-run: near its source, always green, always cool, always moist, comparatively free from frost in winter and from drought in summer.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Always Comparitively Country Drought Green Margin Near Run Source Spring Summer Winter
To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your facts is another.
JOHN BURROUGHS

Another Fact Imagination One Thing Treat

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More John Burroughs Quotes