Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.
John MuirRead
Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Approach books with care and appreciation, taking the knowledge they offer without causing harm.
This quote by John Muir emphasizes the importance of treating books as valuable resources. Just as bees delicately gather nectar from flowers without causing harm, we should seek to learn from books, absorbing their wisdom and insights while respecting their integrity. It suggests a gentle yet purposeful engagement with literature, highlighting the balance between enjoyment and preservation.
Themes
BooksKnowledgeWisdomEducationLearning
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of literacy, one might say, 'Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.'
More from John Muir
All quotes βWhen we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
John MuirRead
As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can".
John MuirRead
The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever planted. The whole continent was a garden, and from the beginning, it seemed to be favored above all the other wild parks and gardens of the globe.
John MuirRead
From the dust of the earth, from the common elementary fund, the Creator has made Homo sapiens. 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.
John MuirRead
...full of God's thoughts, a place of peace and safety amid the most exalted grandeur and enthusiastic action, a new song, a place of beginnings abounding in first lessons of life, mountain building, eternal, invincible, unbreakable order; with sermons in stone, storms, trees, flowers, and animals brimful with humanity.
John MuirRead
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In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process itself should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean out of ourselves.
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