John Muir Quotes

Birds have wings; they're free; they can fly where they want when they want. They have the kind of mobility many people envy.

The seeds of a redwood are released from cones that are about the size of olives. The heartwood of the tree is a dark, shimmery red in color, like old claret. The wood has a lemony scent and is extremely resistant to rot.

August is the month of the high-sailing hawks. The hen hawk is the most noticeable. He likes the haze and calm of these long, warm days. He is a bird of leisure and seems always at his ease. How beautiful and majestic are his movements!

Every seed has a story.

I throw fresh seeds out. Who knows what survives?

But we must admit the possibility that continued investigation and experience will bring us ever nearer to that solemn moment, when the first man will rise from earth by means of wings, if only for a few seconds, and mark that historical moment which heralds the inauguration of a new era in our civilization.

Flying without feathers is not easy: my wings have no feathers.

The dust's for crawling, heaven's for flying, Wherefore, O Soul, whose wings are grown, Soar upward to the sun!

Poised for flight, Wings spread bright, Spring from night into the Sun.

And also, there are so many times when you need to make a quick escape, but humans don't have their own wings, or not yet, anyway, so what about a birdseed shirt?

Everyone in me is a bird I am beating all my wings

So rapid is the flight of our dreams upon the wings of imagination.

All the butterflies and cockyolybirds would fly past me.

He wanted to fly in lightweight contraptions with her.

A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether. And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.

A dim capacity for wings demeans the dress I wear.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air.

According to recognized aero technical tests, the bumblebee cannot fly because of the shape and weight of his body in relation to the total wing area. The bumblebee doesn't know this, so he goes ahead and flies anyway.

On wings of wind came flying all abroad.

A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled, down, down to the water

The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing.

And to lose the chance to see frigatebirds soaring in circles above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset, or a myriad terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach -- why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time.

Can I love someone...and still think/fly? Love is flying, sown, floating. Thought is solitary flight, beating wings.