A Quote by John Burroughs

Travel and society polish one, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, and a little moss is a good thing on a man.

John Burroughs

Quote Topics

Society Travel Good Good Thing Little Man Moss Polish Rolling Rolling Stone Stone Thing

Quote Author

John Burroughs
American - Author
April 3, 1837 - March 29, 1921

A rolling stone gathers no moss, but it gains a certain polish.

Oliver Herford

A rolling stone gathers no moss and therefore will not be derided as a moss-back. Roll as much as possible.

George Ade

The difference between the Japanese and the American is summed up in their opposite reactions to the proverb (popular in both nations), "A rolling stone gathers no moss." Epidemiologist S. Leonard Syme observes that to the Japanese, moss is exquisite and valued; a stone is enhanced by moss; hence a person who keeps moving and changing never acquires the beauty and benefits of stability. To Americans, the proverb is an admonition to keep rolling, to keep from being covered with clinging attachments.

Carol Tavris

It has been said that a rolling stone gathers no moss. I would add that sometimes a rolling stone also gathers no verifiable facts or even the tiniest morsels of journalistic integrity.

Ed Helms

As the rolling stone gathers no moss, so the roving heart gathers no affections.

Anna Brownell Jameson

The rolling stone rolls echoing from rock to rock; but the rolling stone is dead. The moss is silent because the moss is alive.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

The early bird gathers no moss! The rolling stone catches the worm.

Jim Carrey

Moss is inconceivably strong. Moss eats stone; scarcely anything, in return, eats moss. Moss dines upon boulders, slowly but devastatingly, in a meal that lasts for centuries. Given enough time, a colony of moss can turn a cliff into gravel, and turn that gravel into topsoil.

Elizabeth Gilbert

For your popular rumour, unlike the rolling stone of the proverb, is one which gathers a deal of moss in its wanderings up and down.

Charles Dickens

I do not know what 'moss' stands for in the proverb , but if it stood for useful knowledge... I gathered more moss by rolling than I ever did at school.