Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

The power of imagination makes us infinite

Written by John Muir 1838–1914 · Scottish-American naturalist & founder of the Sierra Club
Verified In copyright

Genuine. Muir wrote it in his mountain journal on 1 September 1875; the full sentence — “Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite” — was first published in John of the Mountains (1938), p. 226. The popular version simply drops the opening “Indeed.”

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Verified quote & credit

“The power of imagination makes us infinite” John Muir, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, ed. Linnie Marsh Wolfe (Houghton Mifflin, 1938), 226 — journal entry of 1 September 1875.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Houghton Mifflin (1938 first edition); John Muir estate / Muir-Hanna Trust; reprinted 1979 by University of Wisconsin Press). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of John Muir — Scottish-American naturalist, writer & founder of the Sierra Club. Theme: "The power of imagination makes us infinite". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The power of imagination makes us infinite". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Quote
“Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.”
Work
John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir
Journal date
1 September 1875 (p. 226)
First published
1938 · ed. Linnie Marsh Wolfe (Houghton Mifflin)

How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! … Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarser senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.

The line closes a journal meditation on the “spiritual eye” — Muir’s argument that the mind, through imagination, perceives more of nature than the physical senses can. It is a claim about perception, not the generic pep-talk it is usually repackaged as.

Wikiquote — John Muir (sourced section)

How we traced it

In copyright

The thought is Muir’s 1875 journal writing, but this text was first published in 1938 in John of the Mountains (Houghton Mifflin), edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe — a 1938 U.S. publication remains under copyright (it enters the public domain on 1 January 2034). Muir’s books issued in his lifetime are public-domain, but this specific posthumously-published journal edition is not.

Fact-check

The credit is right — the sourcing isn’t

Unusually for a feel-good line pinned to a famous naturalist, this one is authentically Muir. What’s wrong is how it travels: almost always sourceless, lightly trimmed, and stripped of what Muir actually meant.

Quote-mill sites no citation

BrainyQuote, Goodreads and AZQuotes all reproduce the line with no book, journal or date — the exact gap this page fills.

Inspirational posters context stripped

Muir’s sentence begins “Indeed, the power of imagination…” and closes a passage about the “spiritual eye” out-perceiving the senses; the standalone slogan drops the opening word and the argument around it, per the full text on Wikiquote.

It really is John Muir — from his journal of 1 September 1875, published in John of the Mountains (1938), p. 226.

Context

What Muir actually meant

Muir jotted the line in the Sierra Nevada in 1875, not as motivation but as epistemology. The surrounding entry argues that the “spiritual eye” of the mind perceives what the senses miss — rivers of air, the vibration of every pine needle, “the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood.”

For Muir, imagination wasn’t escapism (“usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal”) but a truer instrument of perception — and that is what he meant by it making us “infinite.”

“True imagination… no more likely to mislead than the coarser senses.”

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Creativity

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote — John Muiren.wikiquote.org

Sourced section printing the full sentence and citing John of the Mountains (1938), p. 226.
Sierra Club — John Muir Exhibit: Quotationsvault.sierraclub.org

Authoritative Muir-scholarship site listing the quote with the same source and page.
John of the Mountains (1938) — book recordvault.sierraclub.org

Bibliographic record for the Wolfe-edited journals that first published the line.
John Muir Bibliography — Univ. of the Pacificscholarlycommons.pacific.edu

Scholarly catalog entry for John of the Mountains and its 1938 publication.
Goodreads — the sourceless versionwww.goodreads.com

Example of the quote circulating with no citation — the common failure mode.

The true author

About John Muir

John Muir

1838–1914 · Scottish-American naturalist, writer & founder of the Sierra Club

John Muir (1838–1914) was a Scottish-born American naturalist, essayist and wilderness advocate often called the “Father of the National Parks.” His writing on the Sierra Nevada helped protect Yosemite and Sequoia, and in 1892 he co-founded the Sierra Club. Much of his most vivid observation survives in field journals published only decades after his death.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

John Muir, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, ed. Linnie Marsh Wolfe (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1938), 226; journal entry of 1 September 1875.

MLA (9th ed.)

Muir, John. John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe, Houghton Mifflin, 1938, p. 226.

APA (7th ed.)

Muir, J. (1938). John of the mountains: The unpublished journals of John Muir (L. M. Wolfe, Ed.). Houghton Mifflin.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The power of imagination makes us infinite’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-power-of-imagination-makes-us-infinite

Copied