Rocks are records of events that took place at the time they formed. They are books. They have a different vocabulary, a different alphabet, but you learn how to read them.

Quote by John McPhee

Topics: Books Quotes

He liked to go from A to B without inventing letters between.

He liked to go from A to B without inventing letters between.

History, although sometimes made up of the few acts of the great, is more often...

History, although sometimes made up of the few acts of the great, is more often...

Council before action.

Council before action.

The feminist movement has helped open minds and kitchens to the notion that men can...

The feminist movement has helped open minds and kitchens to the notion that men can...

It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.

It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.

The doer is merely a fiction added to the deed the deed is everything.

The doer is merely a fiction added to the deed the deed is everything.

It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of...

It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of...

Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind...

Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind...

We owe our troops the opportunity to serve in the best-planned, best-equipped, and best-led military...

We owe our troops the opportunity to serve in the best-planned, best-equipped, and best-led military...

You must learn an inner solitude, wherever or with whomsoever you may be. You must...

You must learn an inner solitude, wherever or with whomsoever you may be. You must...

If I want to be great I have to win the victory over myself... self-discipline.

If I want to be great I have to win the victory over myself... self-discipline.

Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is...

Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is...

Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than...

Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than...

A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that action, not words, are...

A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that action, not words, are...

Words that do not match deeds are unimportant

Words that do not match deeds are unimportant

Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it

Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it

The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But...

The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But...

A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which...

A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which...

We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads,...

We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads,...