In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Parts of Animals
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Bible, Psalm1 xxiii. 2.
A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.
Carl Reiner
Hunting has opened the earth to me and let me sense the rhythms and hierarchies2 of nature.
Charles Fergus
Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.
Charles Lindbergh (1902 - 1974)
Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business.
Dave Barry (1947 - )
There is... nothing greater than touching3 the shore after crossing some great body of water knowing that I've done it with my own two arms and legs.
Diana Nyad
I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.
E. B. White (1899 - 1985)
Mountains inspire awe4 in any human person who has a soul. They remind us of our frailty5, our unimportance, of the briefness of our span upon this earth. They touch the heavens, and sail serenely6 at an altitude beyond even the imaginings of a mere7 mortal.
Elizabeth Aston, The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy, 2005
Kneeling over a trickling8 mountain stream and pumping every ounce of water you use though a filter can really change your perception of turning on a faucet9.
Eric Voorhis, Camping Earth, Backcountry Camping Can Be A Stressful Pursuit, 03-02-12
There is a solitude10, or perhaps a solemnity, in the few hours that precede the dawn of day which is unlike that of any others in the twenty-four, and which I cannot explain or account for. Thoughts come to me at this time that I never have at any other.
George Bird Grinnell
Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.
George Carlin (1937 - 2008)
In wildness is the preservation11 of the world.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)
It is pleasant to have been to a place the way a river went.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)
It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.
Hunter S. Thompson (1939 - 2005)
What nature delivers to us is never stale. Because what nature creates has eternity12 in it.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904 - 1991)
Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth13 their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art.
Izaak Walton (1593 - 1683)
People say to me so often, 'Jane how can you be so peaceful when everywhere around you people want books signed, people are asking these questions and yet you seem peaceful,' and I always answer that it is the peace of the forest that I carry inside.
Jane Goodall (1934 - )
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
John Muir (1838 - 1914), Our National Parks, 1901
Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose14 like that of the green deep woods. Here grow the wallflower and the violet. The squirrel will come and sit upon your knee, the logcock will wake you in the morning. Sleep in forgetfulness of all ill. Of all the upness accessible to mortals, there is no upness comparable to the mountains.
John Muir (1838 - 1914), Atlantic Monthly, January 1869
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.
John Muir (1838 - 1914), The Yosemite, 1912
Fresh beauty opens one's eyes wherever it is really seen, but the very abundance and completeness of the common beauty that besets15 our steps prevents its being absorbed and appreciated. It is a good thing, therefore, to make short excursions now and then to the bottom of the sea among dulse and coral, or up among the clouds on mountain-tops, or in balloons, or even to creep like worms into dark holes and caverns16 underground, not only to learn something of what is going on in those out-of-the-way places, but to see better what the sun sees on our return to common everyday beauty.
John Muir (1838 - 1914), My First Summer in the Sierra, 1911
In God's wildness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness17. The galling18 harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware.
John Muir (1838 - 1914), John of the Mountains, 1938
Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. None of Nature's landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild.
John Muir (1838 - 1914), Our National Parks, 1901
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
John Muir (1838 - 1914), John of the Mountains, 1938
When we contemplate19 the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
John Muir (1838 - 1914), Travels in Alaska by John Muir, 1915, chapter 1
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched20 to everything else in the Universe.
John Muir (1838 - 1914), My First Summer in the Sierra, 1911
When one loses the deep intimate relationship with nature, then temples, mosques21 and churches become important.
Krishnamurti, Beginnings of Learning
Nature has been for me, for as long as I remember, a source of solace22, inspiration, adventure, and delight; a home, a teacher, a companion.
Lorraine Anderson
Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
