# Quote — John Muir, The Mountains of California

> It is generally supposed that complete pleasure of this kind, permeating one's very flesh and bones, unfits the student for scientific pursuits in which cool judgment and observation are required. But the effect is just the opposite. Instead of producing a dissipated condition, the mind is fertilized and stimulated and developed like sun-fed plants.

- Author: [John Muir](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-muir.md)
- Book: [The Mountains of California](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-muir/the-mountains-of-california.md)
- Page: 350
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Muir#The_Mountains_of_California_(1894)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-muir/the-mountains-of-california/it-is-generally

## More from this book

> When I first enjoyed this superb view, one glowing April day, from the summit of the Pacheco Pass, the Central Valley, but little trampled or ploughed as yet, was one furred, rich sheet of golden compositae, and the luminous wall of the mountains shone in all its glory. Then it seemed to me the Sierra should be called not the Nevada, or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And after ten years spent in the heart of it, rejoicing and wondering, bathing in its glorious floods of light, seeing the sunbursts of morning among the icy peaks, the noonday radiance on the trees and rocks and snow, the flush of alpenglow, and a thousand dashing waterfalls with their marvelous abundance of irised spray, it still seems to be above all others the Range of Light.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-muir/the-mountains-of-california/when-i-first.md)

> Accidents in the mountains are less common than in the lowlands, and these mountain mansions are decent, delightful, even divine, places to die in, compared with the doleful chambers of civilization. Few places in this world are more dangerous than home. Fear not, therefore, to try the mountain-passes. They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action. Even the sick should try these so-called dangerous passes, because for every unfortunate they kill, they cure a thousand.

p. 328 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-muir/the-mountains-of-california/accidents-in-the.md)

> [Concerning the Sugar Pine:] The wood is deliciously fragrant, and fine in grain and texture; it is of a rich cream-yellow, as if formed of condensed sunbeams.

p. 360 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-muir/the-mountains-of-california/concerning-the-sugar.md)