Quotes from book
A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

Name: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf
Author: John Muir

John Muir

The famed naturalist hiked through the rural American South in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, chronicling the Spanish moss, palmettos, magnolias, and other botanical wonders he encountered along the way.

“The world, we are told, was made especially for man — a presumption not supported by all the facts.”

John Muir book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

Source: A Thousand-Mile Walk To the Gulf, 1916, chapter 6: Cedar Keys, page 160
Source: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

“Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of that unit — the cosmos? The universe would be incomplete without man; but it would also be incomplete without the smallest transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond our conceitful eyes and knowledge. From the dust of the earth, from the common elementary fund, the Creator has made Homo sapiens.”

John Muir book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

From the same material he has made every other creature, however noxious and insignificant to us. They are earth-born companions and our fellow mortals. … This star, our own good earth, made many a successful journey around the heavens ere man was made, and whole kingdoms of creatures enjoyed existence and returned to dust ere man appeared to claim them. After human beings have also played their part in Creation's plan, they too may disappear without any general burning or extraordinary commotion whatever.
Source: A Thousand-Mile Walk To the Gulf, 1916, chapter 6: Cedar Keys, pages 160-161