What does this quote mean?

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”

Wonder and transcendence are located in the ordinary world around us instead of only in distant or abstract ideals.

Source note: Walden, chapter “The Pond in Winter”; the line joins the immediate natural world with spiritual wonder.

“All the world seemed new-born.”

Intense attention can make familiar surroundings feel newly encountered, turning an ordinary moment into a renewed experience of landscape and life.

Source note: Travels in Alaska, mountain excursion near the Stickeen; Muir describes the effect of evening light after a strenuous day.

“The poetry of earth is never dead.”

Seasonal change does not extinguish natural life; the poem hears a continuing voice in both summer and winter.

Source note: On the Grasshopper and Cricket, opening line.

“Sweet is the lore which Nature brings.”

Nature is presented as a source of knowledge that can complement formal study by training attention and receptiveness.

Source note: The Tables Turned; the line follows Wordsworth’s claim that a vernal wood can teach moral insight.

“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”

Wordsworth describes long attention to nature as a dependable source of memory, quietness, and moral perspective.

Source note: Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.

“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!”

The exclamation turns sunrise into an event worth deliberate attention, expressing Muir’s habit of treating ordinary natural processes as occasions for wonder.

Source note: The Mountains of California, in a passage describing morning light on the mountains.