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1 " 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 , The Mountains of California
2 " How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains! "
3 " Raindrops blossom brilliantly in the rainbow, and change to flowers in the sod, but snow comes in full flower direct from the dark, frozen sky. "
4 " Even the sick should try these so-called dangerous passes, because for every unfortunate they kill, they cure a thousand. "
5 " We all travel the Milky Way together, trees and men. "
6 " Few places in this world are more dangerous than home. Fear not, therefore, to try the mountain passes. They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action. "
7 " Here are the roots of all the life of the valleys, and here more simply than elsewhere is the eternal flux of nature manifested. "
8 " I drifted on through the midst of this passionate music and motion, across many a glen, from ridge to ridge; often halting in the lee of a rock for shelter, or to gaze and listen. Even when the grand anthem had swelled to its highest pitch, I could distinctly hear the varying tones of individual trees [...] and even the infinitely gentle rustle of the withered grasses at my feet. Each was expressing itself in its own way, - singing its own song, and making its own peculiar gestures - manifesting a richness of variety to be found in no other forest I have yet seen. "
9 " Then, after a long fireside rest and a glance at my note-book, I cut a few leafy branches for a bed, and fell into the clear, death-like sleep of the tired mountaineer. Early "
10 " But the darkest scriptures of the mountains are illumined with bright passages of love that never fail to make themselves felt when one is alone. I "
11 " But we little know until tried, how much of the uncontrollable there is in us, urging us across glaciers and torrents, and up dangerous heights, let the judgement forbid as it may. "