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The Story of My Boyhood and Youth QUOTES

The Story of My Boyhood and Youth QUOTES

1 " When I was a child in Scotland, I was fond of everything that was wild, and all my life I've been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and wild creatures. Fortunately, around my native town of Dunbar, by the stormy North Sea, there was no lack of wildness... "

― John Muir , The Story of My Boyhood and Youth

2 " ...And how after we grow old can we read the Bible without a little helpful science? Just think, father, you cannot read your Bible without spectacles,... And spectacles cannot be made without some knowledge of the science of optics. "

― John Muir , The Story of My Boyhood and Youth

3 " On the food question father insisted that those who argued for a vegetable diet were in the right... He therefore promptly adopted a vegetable diet and requested mother to make the bread from graham flour instead of bolted flour. Mother put both kinds on the table... and while father was insisting on the foolishness of eating flesh, I came to her help by calling father's attention to the passage in the Bible which told the story of Elijah the prophet who, when he was pursued by enemies who wanted to take his life, was hidden by the Lord by the brook Cherith, and fed by Ravens; and surely the Lord knew what was good to eat, whether bread or meat. And on what, I asked, did the Lord feed Elijah? On vegetables or graham bread? No, he directed the ravens to feed his prophet on flesh... The Lord never would have sent flesh to Elijah by the ravens if graham bread were better. "

― John Muir , The Story of My Boyhood and Youth

4 " But I had been so lectured by my father above all things to avoid praise that I was afraid to read those kind newspaper notices, and never clipped out or preserved any of them, just glanced at them and turned away my eyes from beholding vanity. "

― John Muir , The Story of My Boyhood and Youth

5 " We thought nothing of running right ahead ten or a dozen miles before turning back; for we knew nothing about taking time by the sun, and none of us had a watch in those days. "

― John Muir , The Story of My Boyhood and Youth

6 " But no punishment, however sure and severe, was of any avail against the attraction of the fields and woods. It had other uses, developing memory, etc., but in keeping us at home it was of no use at all. "

― John Muir , The Story of My Boyhood and Youth

7 " An hour was allowed at noon for dinner and more chores. We stayed in the field until dark, then supper, and still more chores, family worship, and to bed; making all together a hard, sweaty day of about 16 or 17 hours. Think of that, ye blessed 8-hour-day laborers! "

― John Muir , The Story of My Boyhood and Youth