10 of the Best John Muir Quotes

There’s certainly no shortage of inspiring John Muir quotes. After all, we have the Sierra Club founder and “Father of our National Parks” to thank for many of our country’s earliest wilderness preservation efforts. His passion for nature and adventure, along with a keen ability to inspire people to action, helped foster in the modern era of environmentalism.

And today, beyond being able to enjoy the places he fought to protect like Yosemite National Park, we still turn to John Muir for some of life’s greatest lessons. Here are few gems that are worth reading again and again…

1) “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.”

2) “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.”

3) “In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

4) “None of Nature’s landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild.”

5) “The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.”

6) “Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”

7) “There is a love of wild Nature in everybody, an ancient mother-love ever showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties.”

8) “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”

9) “The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”

10)“The battle for conservation must go on endlessly. It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong.”

Have these John Muir quotes inspired you? Check out rafting trips with OARS to channel your inner John Muir on the river.

Got a favorite John Muir quote? Let’s keep the list going below.