Some of the animals outsee man, outsmell him, outhear him, outrun him, outswim him, because their lives depend more upon these special powers than his does; but he can outwit them all because he has the resourcefulness of reason and is at home in many different fields.
Interpretation
Humans leverage reasoning and adaptability to thrive, unlike animals that rely on their physical abilities.
In this quote, John Burroughs highlights the unique cognitive abilities of humans compared to animals. While animals excel in their specific sensory and physical skills necessary for survival, humans possess the ability to think rationally and adapt to various situations, showcasing the superiority of intellect and reason over mere physical prowess.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a seminar on human potential and adaptability.
The very idea of a bird is a symbol and a suggestion to the poet. A bird seems to be at the top of the scale, so vehement and intense is his life, large-brained, large-lunged, hot, ecstatic, his frame charged with buoyancy and his heart with song.
Naturalists, like poets, are born and then made only by years of painstaking observation.
Every walk to the woods is a religious rite, every bath in the stream is a saving ordinance. Communion service is at all hours, and the bread and wine are from the heart and marrow of Mother Earth.
Next to the laborer in the fields, the walker holds the closest relation to the soil; and he holds a closer and more vital relation to nature because he is freer and his mind more at leisure.
Unadulterated, unsweetened observations are what the real nature-lover craves. No man can invent incidents and traits as interesting as the reality.
Writing is reporting what we saw after the vision has left us. It is catching the fish which the tide has left far up on our shores in the low and depressed places.
No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear.
To develop our real selves, we need time alone for thought and meditation. To be always giving out and never pumping in, the well runs dry.
As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.
He possesses dominion over himself, and is happy, who can every day say, "I have lived." Tomorrow the heavenly father may either involve the world in dark clouds, or cheer it with clear sunshine, he will not, however, render ineffectual the things which have already taken place.
Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
Action and contemplation are very close companions; they live together in one house on equal terms. Martha and Mary are sisters.
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