Sublime

We have agreed not to drive our automobiles into cathedrals, concert halls, art museums, legislative assemblies, private bedrooms and the other sanctums of our culture; we should treat our national parks with the same deference, for they, too, are holy places.

went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

the pioneering, two-volume Etudes sur les Glaciers, for example, which appeared in 1840—involved

In 1869, in Boston, on the 100th anniversary of Humboldt’s birth, Agassiz, by then America’s most renowned naturalist, would recount in a long speech the incredible life of his mentor, the monumental productivity right up until the end, the trip to the Urals in 1829, the historic series of lectures in Berlin, the friendship with Goethe, the new car

Il y a quelque chose de l’obstination du légionnaire chez Muir. Il décide, il fait, et c’était impossible à tout autre que lui. Il y a chez Muir une ténacité exceptionnelle, une avancée pas à pas vers le but en traversant les obstacles, et le corps, sa fatigue et ses limites ne semblent compter pour rien.

Muir, qui avait commencé d’écrire tard, regrettait qu’il n’ait pu disposer de deux vies, l’une qu’il aurait passée à marcher, et l’autre à écrire, plus encore qu’il ne l’a fait.