Travels in Alaska

“Most people who travel look only at what they are directed to look at. Great is the power of the guidebook maker, however ignorant.””

— John Muir

“Go where we will, all the world over, we seem to have been there before.””

— John Muir

“But think of the hearts of these whales, beating warm against the sea, day and night, through dark and light, on and on for centuries; how the red blood must rush and gurgle in and out, bucketfuls, barrelfuls at a beat!””

— John Muir

“To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.””

— John Muir

“So abundant and novel are the objects of interest in a pure wilderness that unless you are pursuing special studies it matters little where you go, or how often to the same place. Wherever you chance to be always seems at the moment of all places the best; and you feel that there can be no happiness in this world or in any other for those who may not be happy here.””

— John Muir

“The care-laden commercial lives we lead close our eyes to the operations of God as a workman, though openly carried on that all who will look may see.””

— John Muir

“Our good ship also seemed like a thing of life, its great iron heart beating on through calm and storm, a truly noble spectacle. But think of the hearts of these whales, beating warm against the sea, day and night, through dark and light, on and on for centuries; how the red blood must rush and gurgle in and out, bucketfuls, barrelfuls at a beat!””

— John Muir

“but when we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.””

— John Muir

“Ralph Waldo Emerson urged him to visit Concord and rest awhile from the strain of his solitary studies in the Sierra Nevada. But nothing could dislodge him from the glacial problems of the high Sierra;””

— John Muir