1. A bird shot and stuffed and botanized is no bird at all. And a bird described by another in cold paint is something less than you deserve. Do not go to museums but find Nature. Do not rely on schoolbooks. Have your mothers and fathers take you to the park or the seashore. Watch the sparrows circle over you, hear the gulls screech, follow the squirrel to his nest in the hollow of an old oak. Nature is nothing at all when it is twice removed. It is only real when you reach out and touch it with your hands.
    — John Burroughs, American naturalist and essayist, to a group a children visiting a museum, John Burroughs: An American Naturalist by Edward Renehan.
     

    nature quote John Burroughs