The Quotable Enos A. Mills, from "Bird Memories of the Rockies"

"Without trees the human race would become a lost child, crying in the night."

"...If you want to have a divine touch of Nature, go as an uninvited guest to a goldfinch banquet on some winter day, where all is gentle and genuine, all artistic and inspiring.  As you see the dear little birds so happy, you will feel knder than ever before, and you will live more peacefully and nobly through all life's changing years."

"Early and late nesting, long and short courtships, the mating songs and calls, and the plumage assumed by some birds at this season give birds an individuality not unlike ourselves.  Observing them in their domestic affairs, their devotion to each other, their care and defense of their young, and the training of the children for life raises birds in our estimation and brings them into our sympathies and understanding."

"To observe birds with the idea of finding out their useful qualities is worth while, and to study them for pure delight -- for the exercise in the good outdoors and the cheerful tone it gives -- is an influence which will better and broaden the life of any one.  Bird-study is not always the long list of birds which you have seen or the nests discovered.  Be content with little -- wait for the birds -- still-hunt.  Envelop yourself in a hole of silence if you desire to see birds."

"...I wish I could transfer to you the poetry of the pathless woods...Many a strong day I have had with the mists on the mountains...I have lived on Alpine moorlands, with groves and tree-fringed grass-plots, with white cascades, with forests green and grand, in silence and in storm, with winter and with summer, and with the shadows of the pines."

"Many a summer night I have had my dreams in a forest glade.  Here, where the perfume of the flowers mingled with the spice of the pines, I held communion with nature."

"All mortals seem strangely influenced while facing a fire in the woods.  I wonder why the camp-fire, with its wild and strange smell, entrances, calms, charms, or arouses the mind like music.  I would that words could tell the thoughts that arise in me as I sit by a fire in the woods."
 
 

Copyright 2001 by the Enos Mills Cabin
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