Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity...

John Muir wrote this line during the late 19th-century surge of interest in outdoor recreation and the emerging American conservation movement. As industrial cities expanded and middle-class tourism to places like Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada increased, Muir argued that wild landscapes were not luxuries but essential to human health and spirit. The phrasing reflects his characteristic critique of modern “over-civilization” and his effort to persuade urban readers—many newly able to travel by rail—that mountains and wilderness offered restoration, perspective, and a kind of spiritual homecoming. The sentiment aligns with Muir’s broader advocacy for protecting wild places as both ecological treasures and sources of human renewal.

The quote frames wilderness as a fundamental human need rather than a recreational indulgence. Muir suggests that modern life—crowded, mechanized, and mentally exhausting—produces people who are “tired” and “nerve-shaken,” and that returning to mountains feels like “going home,” implying an innate belonging to the natural world. The claim that “wilderness is a necessity” elevates nature from scenery to medicine: it restores attention, humility, and vitality, and counters the alienation of urban-industrial culture. Implicitly, the line also supports preservation: if wilderness is necessary for human flourishing, then protecting it becomes a moral and social imperative, not merely an aesthetic preference.