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)