“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.
The Mountains of California, in a passage describing morning light on the mountains.
“How interesting everything is!”
Wonder becomes a method of attention: rocks, streams, plants, and animals all become invitations to learn rather than background scenery.
My First Summer in the Sierra, near the close of the summer journal.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.
“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.
Walden, chapter “The Pond in Winter”; the line joins the immediate natural world with spiritual wonder.
