10 Inspiring Quotes About The Great Outdoors
I am a quote queen. They take up pages in my journals, I have a "WORDS" Pintrest board I'm always adding to, and my blog posts tend to begin with one. I'm partial to quotes that praise the magic of nature + the wilderness. It's a challenge to capture my state of mind when I am absorbed in fresh air, green earth or turquoise sea, but I find the greats like Muir, Thoreau and Abbey have all done it elegantly and repeatedly. Here are a few of my favorite nature quotes to inspire your weekend exploration.
*This was originally posted in October 2015 and has been updated with new images I've taken from California, Oregon and Washington.
"We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
“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” ― John Muir, Our National Parks
“The Wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask.”― Nancy Wynne Newhall
“The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see.” ― Edward Abbey
“Remember what Bilbo used to say: ‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”—J.R.R. Tolkien
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature–the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter." -Rachel Carson
“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru
“Nature contains that spirit and power which we can witness but not weigh, inwardly conceive but not comprehend, love but not limit, imagine, but neither define nor describe.” – T. E. Lawrence
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”- Henry David Thoreau
"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."-Kahlil Gibran
Did I miss your favorite quote? Share it below in the comments!
