4.17.2010

A Couple More John Muir Quotes

No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty. Whether as seen carving the lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars, or planning the movements of water, or gardening--still all is Beauty!

And regarding the damming of Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley, considered by many second only in beauty to the Yosemite Valley itself:

The temple-destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.

The Hetch Hetchy was dammed in the 1920's and is now the Hetch Hetchy Resevoir which provides water to the city of San Francisco. Ironic that a city that probably has a higher percentage of bleeding-heart liberals and conservationists than any other city on the planet, drink from the travesty that is Hetch Hetchy Resevoir.

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