John Wesley Powell

Years of drought and famine come and years of flood and famine come, and the climate is not changed with dance, libation…

— John Wesley Powell

Indian nouns are extremely connotive; that is, the name does more than simply denote the thing to which it belongs - in…

— John Wesley Powell

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the…

— John Wesley Powell

We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks…

— John Wesley Powell

We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats...are chafing each other, as they are tossed…

— John Wesley Powell

The landscape everywhere, away from the river, is of rock - cliffs of rock; plateaus of rock; terraces of rock; crags of…

— John Wesley Powell

The verb is relatively of much greater importance in an Indian tongue than in a civilized language.

— John Wesley Powell

Possible ideas and thoughts are vast in number. A distinct word for every distinct idea and thought would require a vast vocabulary.…

— John Wesley Powell

We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore.

— John Wesley Powell

I am not sure that we can climb out of the canyon here, and, when at the top of the wall, I…

— John Wesley Powell

The elements that unite to make the Grand Canyon the most sublime spectacle in nature are multifarious and exceedingly diverse.

— John Wesley Powell

The integers of language are sentences, and their organs are the parts of speech. Linguistic organization, then, consists in the differentiation of…

— John Wesley Powell

The landscape everywhere, away from the river, is of rock, cliffs of rock, tables of rock, plateaus of rock, terraces of rock,…

— John Wesley Powell

In central Colorado the Continental Divide is a wilderness of desolate peaks that rise far above the timber line into regions of…

— John Wesley Powell

I have heard the venerable and impassioned orator on the camp meeting stand rehearse the story of the crucifixion, and seen the…

— John Wesley Powell

I wish to make it clear to you, there is not sufficient water to irrigate all the lands which could be irrigated,…

— John Wesley Powell

You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be…

— John Wesley Powell