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My First Summer in the Sierra: 100th Anniversary Illustrated Edition
My Top Ten John Muir Quotations from the Book
By Scot Miller
(listed in order as they appear in the book, referenced by page number)
“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.” (page 10)
“Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.” (page 26)
“How rich our inheritance in these blessed mountains, the tree pastures into which our eyes are turned!” (page 33)
“All the Merced streams are wonderful singers, and Yosemite is the centre where the main tributaries meet.” (page 65)
“But in the face of Yosemite scenery cautious remonstrance is vain; under its spell one’s body seems to go where it likes with a will over which we seem to have scarce any control.” (page 77)
“No Sierra landscape that I have seen holds anything truly dead or dull, or any trace of what in manufactories is called rubbish or waste; everything is perfectly clean and pure and full of divine lessons.” (page 104)
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” (page 104)
“Nature as a poet, an enthusiastic workingman, becomes more and more visible the farther and higher we go; for the mountains are fountains – beginning places, however related to sources beyond mortal ken.” (page 104)
“No words will ever describe the exquisite beauty and charm of this mountain park – Nature’s landscape garden at once tenderly beautiful and sublime. No wonder it draws nature-lovers from all over the world.” (page 138)
“And how glorious the shining after the short summer showers and after frosty nights when the morning sunbeams are pouring through the crystals on the grass and pine needles, and how ineffably spiritually fine is the morning-glow on the mountain-tops and the alpenglow of evening. Well may the Sierra be named, not the Snowy Range, but the Range of Light.” (page 157)
Now online – Five Yosemite day hikes to experience John Muir’s wilderness