“So extravagant is Nature with her choicest treasures, spending plant beauty as she spends sunshine, pouring it forth into land and sea, garden and desert. And so the beauty of lilies falls on angels and men, bears and squirrels, wolves and sheep, birds and bees,….”

— John Muir, book My First Summer in the Sierra

Terry Gifford, EWDB, page 224
1860s, My First Summer in the Sierra, 1869

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "So extravagant is Nature with her choicest treasures, spending plant beauty as she spends sunshine, pouring it forth in…" by John Muir?

John Muir183

Scottish-born American naturalist and author 1838–1914

Related quotes

“The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat’ning horn:
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

The Lily
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

“Nature is what we see,
The Hill, the Afternoon—
Squirrel, Eclipse, the Bumble-bee,
Nay—Nature is Heaven.

Nature is what we hear,
The Bobolink, the Sea—
Thunder, the Cricket—
Nay,—Nature is Harmony.

Nature is what we know
But have no art to say,
So impotent our wisdom is
To Her simplicity.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Source: Collected Poems (1993), p. 268-269. The Single Hound.

“As they say, art is pleasure, invention is treasure, and this nation has got to recognise that. If they can spend a fortune on dead sheep and formaldehyde, then it can spend a bit more of that money on inventors.”

Trevor Baylis (1937–2018) English inventor

Cited in: Jonathan Sutherland, ‎Diane Canwell (2008), Essential Business Studies A Level: AS Student Book for AQA. p. 23

“The duty we owe to our gardens is to so use the plants that they shall form beautiful pictures; and that, while delighting our eyes.”

Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932) garden designer, artist

Colour in the Garden

“As they grew sloppier and less alert, the twins argued too loudly about whether Tiger Lily was ugly or beautiful, and finally agreed that she was "ugly beautiful".
Tiger Lily pretended she hadn't heard, but her heart slowed to absorb the blow.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

“So many people spend so much of their life energy "sweating the small stuff" that they completely lose touch with the magic and beauty of life.”

Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker

Lesson 1, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…and it’s all Small Stuff (1997)
Context: Often we allow ourselves to get all worked up about things that, upon closer examination, aren't really that big a deal. We focus on little problems and blow them out of proportion. … Whether we had to wait in line, listen to unfair criticism, or do the lion's share of the work, it pays enormous dividends if we learn not to worry about little things. So many people spend so much of their life energy "sweating the small stuff" that they completely lose touch with the magic and beauty of life.