John James Audubon Quotes
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I discover that my friends think only of my apparel, and those upon whom I have conferred acts of kindness prefer to remind me of my errors.
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The fact is I am growing old too fast, alas! I feel it, and yet work I will, and may God grant me life to see the last plate of my mammoth work finished.
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Mathematics was hard, dull work. Geography pleased me more. For dancing I was quite enthusiastic.
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I wish I had eight pairs of hands, and another body to shoot the specimens.
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There is the morass, wherein you plunge up to your knees, or the walking over the stubborn, dwarfish shrubbery, whereby one treads down the forests of Labrador; and the unexpected bunting or sylvia which perchance, and indeed as if by chance alone, you now and then see flying before you, or hear singing from the ground creeping plant.
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Almost every day, instead of going to school, I made for the fields, where I spent my day.
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The best recommendation I can have is my own talents, and the fruits of my own labors, and what others will not do for me, I will try and do for myself.
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On landing at New York I caught the yellow fever. The kind man who commanded the ship that brought me from France took charge of me and placed me under the care of two Quaker ladies. To their skillful and untiring care I may safely say I owe my life.
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But Hopes are Shy Birds flying at a great distance seldom reached by the best of Guns.
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As I grew up I was fervently desirous of becoming acquainted with Nature.
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In America, business is the first object in view at all times, and rightly it should be so.
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During all these years there existed within me a tendency to follow Nature in her walks.
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I feel fully decided that we should all go to Europe together and to work as if an established Partnership for Life consisting of Husband Wife and Children.
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Reader, persons who have never witnessed a hurricane, such as not unfrequently desolates the sultry climates of the south, can scarcely form an idea of their terrific grandeur. One would think that, not content with laying waste all on land, it must needs sweep the waters of the shallows quite dry to quench its thirst.
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A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.
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Ah! How often when I have been abroad on the mountains has my heart risen in grateful praise to God that it was not my destiny to waste and pine among those noisome congregations of the city.
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Poor France, thy fine climate, rich vineyards, and the wishes of the learned avail nothing; thou art a destitute beggar, and not the powerful friend thou wert represented to me.
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All trembling, I reached the Falls of Niagara, and oh, what a scene! My blood shudders still, although I am not a coward, at the grandeur of the Creator's power; and I gazed motionless on this new display of the irresistible force of one of His elements.
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How could I make a little book, when I have seen enough to make a dozen large books?
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The Fur Company may be called the exterminating medium of these wild and almost uninhabitable regions, which cupidity or the love of money alone would induce man to venture into. Where can I now go and find nature undisturbed?
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After all, I long to be in America again, nay, if I can go home to return no more to Europe, it seems to me that I shall ever enjoy more peace of mind, and even Physical comfort than I can meet with in any portion of the world beside.
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In my deepest troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests.
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From the top of a high rock, I obtained a good few of the most extensive and dreary wilderness I ever beheld. It chilled the heart to gaze on these barrens of Labrador. Indeed, I now dread every change of harbor, so horridly rugged and dangerous is the whole coast and country to the eye, and to the experienced man either of the sea or the land.
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Because my father was often absent on naval duty, my mother suffered me to do much as I pleased.