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41 " A man is not saved by the truth of the things he believes, but by the truth of his belief- its sincerity, its harmony with his character. The absurdities of the popular religions do not matter; what matters is the lukewarm belief, the empty forms, the shallow conceptions of life and duty. We are prone to think that if the creed is false, the religion is false. Religion is an emotion, an inspiration, a feeling of the Infinite, and may have its root in any creed or no creed... Any creed that ennobles character and opens a door or window upon the deeper meanings of this marvelous universe is good enough to live by, and good enough to die by. "
― John Burroughs
42 " Science kills credulity and superstition, but to the well-balanced mind it enhances the feeling of wonder, of veneration, and of kinship which we feel in the presence of the miraculous universe. "
― John Burroughs , Accepting the Universe: Essays in Naturalism
43 " A nation always begins to rot first in its great cities, is indeed perhaps always rotting there, and is saved only by the antiseptic virtues of fresh supplies of country blood. "
― John Burroughs , In the Catskills
44 " To interpret Nature is not to improve upon her: it is to draw her out; it is to have an emotional intercourse with her, absorb her, and reproduce her tinged with the colors of the spirit. "
― John Burroughs , Wake-Robin
45 " He said afterwards that his ranch life had been the making of him. It had built him up and hardened him physically, and it had opened his eyes to the wealth of manly character among the plainsmen and cattlemen. "
― John Burroughs , Camping And Tramping With President Roosevelt
46 " Literature does not grow wild in the woods. Every artist does something more than copy Nature; more comes out in his account than goes into the original experience. "
47 " I am not always aware myself how much pleasure I have had in a walk till I try to share it with my reader. The heat of composition brings out the color and the flavor. We must not forget the illusions of all art. If my reader thinks he does not get from Nature what I get from her, let me remind him that he can hardly know what he has got till he defines it to himself as I do, and throws about it the witchery of words. Literature does not grow wild in the woods. Every artist does something more than copy Nature; more comes out in his account than goes into the original experience. "
48 " A man can get discouraged many times, but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying. "
49 " O sad, sad hills! O cold, cold hearth!In sorrow he learned this truth —One may return to the place of his birth,He cannot go back to his youth. "
50 " The President himself is a good deal of a storm,—a man of such abounding energy and ceaseless activity that he sets everything in motion around him wherever he goes. "
51 " Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars.... "
52 " Those children," he said, as he came back, "wanted to see the President of the United States, and I could not disappoint them. They may never have another chance. What a deep impression such things make when we are young! "
53 " SERENE, I fold my hands and wait, Nor care for wind, or tide, or sea; I rave no more ’gainst time or fate, For, lo! my own shall come to me. "