John Burroughs Quotes

In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.

He who does not become familiar with nature through love will never know her.

Tell the Earth how much you care, how beautiful she is, and how much you love her. Ask for her forgiveness for having been so careless.

Where nature is concerned, familiarity breeds love and knowledge, not contempt.

I love nature.

The beliefs I was raised with - to respect animals and to be aware of nature, to understand that we share this planet with other creatures - have had a huge impact on me.

The love of nature is a different thing from the love of science, though the two may go together.

I also personally think - as do many others - that a shift on consciousness is needed toward one where we understand that we are in a relationship with the earth and all living beings, that we have agency. That life is worth fighting for.

Trivially speaking, ecological awareness means realising that beings are interconnected in some way, but then we have to figure out what this interconnection actually means.

It's a wonderful experience to look at our Earth.

The philosophy that I have worked under most of my life is that the serious study of natural history is an activity which has far-reaching effects in every aspect of a person's life. It ultimately makes people protective of the environment in a very committed way. It is my opinion that the study of natural history should be the primary avenue for creating environmentalists.

TThe most effective way to save the threatened and decimated natural world is to cause people to fall in love with it again, with its beauty and its reality.

I love my poor earth because I have seen no other.

I'm a big believer in our connection to nature.

Our land-healing ministry really is about cultivating relationships: between the people, the loving stewards, and the ecology of a place, what I call the environmental umbilical that we're nurturing here.

I think having nature be a part of people's lives helps all of us see ourselves as part of something larger.

Ecology should be object lessons that the world sees, that explains in a visceral, physical way, the attributes of God.

For me, the study of these laws is inseparable from a love of Nature in all its manifestations.

Environmentalism is a way of seeing our place within the biosphere.

Children are still in love with the wonders of nature, and I am, too. So I write them stories in hopes that they will want to protect all the beautiful creatures and places.

Look at the bark of a redwood, and you see moss. If you peer beneath the bits and pieces of the moss, you'll see toads, small insects, a whole host of life that prospers in that miniature environment. A lumberman will look at a forest and see so many board feet of lumber. I see a living city.

Environmentalism isn't a discipline or specialty. It's a way of seeing our place in the world. And we need everybody to see the world that way. Don't think 'In order to make a difference I have to become an environmentalist.'

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.

Being in touch with the natural world is crucial.

Life is abundant, and life is beautiful. And it's a good place that we're all in, you know, on this earth, if we take care of it.