Take Time
Take time to work … it is the price of success.
Take time to think … it is the source of power.
Take time to play, … it is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read, … it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to be friendly, … it is the road to happiness.
Take time to dream, … it is hitching your wagon to a star.
Take time to love & be loved, … it is the privilege of the Gods.
Take time to look around … it is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to laugh … it is the music of the soul.
—English Prayer
It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.
—Jimmy Carter (b.1924) American Head of State, Military Leader
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity … and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
What is more gentle than a wind in summer?
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature-the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
Nature uses human imagination to lift her work of creation to even higher levels.
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) Italian Dramatist, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Author
Nature uses as little as possible of anything.
—Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) German Mathematician, Astronomer
I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.
—Diane Ackerman (b.1948) American Poet, Essayist, Naturalist
Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
Now nature is not at variance with art, nor art with nature; they being both the servants of his providence. Art is the perfection of nature. Were the world now as it was the sixth day, there were yet a chaos. Nature hath made one world, and art another. In brief, all things are artificial; for nature is the art of God.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
—George Washington Carver (1864–1943) American Scientist, Botanist, Educator, Inventor
The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
A tree that affords thee shade, do not order it to be cut down.
—Arabic Proverb
The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.
—Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) German Mathematician, Astronomer
The world is too must: with us; late and soon, getting and spending we lay waste our powers. Little we see in nature that is ours.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
Nature, time and patience are the three great physicians.
—Common Proverb
How things look on the outside of us depends on how things are on the inside of us. Stay close to the heart of nature and forget this troubled world. Remember, there is nothing wrong with nature; the trouble is in ourselves.
—Parks Cousins
There is a great solitude about such a shore. The woods are never solitary- they are full of whispering, beckoning, friendly life. But the sea is a mighty soul, forever moaning of some great, unshareable sorrow, which shuts it up into itself for all eternity. We can never pierce its infinite mystery- we may only wander, awed and spell-bound, on the outer fringe of it. The woods call to us with a hundred voices, but the sea has one only- a mighty voice that drowns our souls in its majestic music. The woods are human, but the sea is of the company of the archangels.
—Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874–1942) Canadian Novelist
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Little drops of water, little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean, and the pleasant land:
So the little minutes, humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages of eternity.
Little deeds of kindness, little words of love,
Help to make earth happy, like Heaven above.
—Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney (1823–1908) American Educator, Poet
Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Just imagine you’re four years old, and someone makes the following proposal: If you’ll wait until after he runs an errand, you can have two marshmallows for a treat. If you can’t wait until then, you can have only one–but you can have it right now. It is a challenge sure to try the soul of any four-year-old, a microcosm of the eternal battle between impulse and restraint, id and ego, desire and self-control, gratification and delay… There is perhaps no psychological skill more fundamental than resisting impulse. It is the root of all emotional self-control, since all emotions, by their very nature, led to one or another impulse to act.
—Daniel Goleman (b.1946) American Psychologist, Author, Science Journalist
Nature’s music is never over; her silences are pauses, not conclusions.
—Mary Webb (1881–1927) English Novelist, Poet, Writer
And that inverted bowl we call The Sky, where under crawling coop’t we live and die, lift not thy hands to It for help — for it rolls impotently on as thou or I.
—Omar Khayyam (1048–1123) Persian Mathematician
Art is man’s nature: Nature is God’s art.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
The beauty and completeness of a wild apple tree living its own life in the woods is heartily acknowledged by all those who have been so happy as to form its acquaintance. The fine wild piquancy of its fruit is unrivaled, but in the great question of quantity as human food wild apples are found wanting. Man, therefore, takes the tree from the woods, manures and prunes and grafts, plans and guesses, adds a little of this and that, selects and rejects, until apples of every conceivable size and softness are produced, like nut galls in response to the irritating punctures of insects. Orchard apples are to me the most eloquent words that culture had ever spoken, but they reflect no imperfection upon Nature’s spicy crab.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
I see it only that thyself is here, and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels and the supreme being shall not be absent from the chamber where thou sittest.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Every flower is a soul blossoming in Nature.
—Gerard de Nerval (1808–55) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understanding and our hearts.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
Natural objects themselves, even when they make no claim to beauty, excite the feelings, and occupy the imagination. Nature pleases, attracts, delights, merely because it is nature. We recognize in it an Infinite Power.
—Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) German Philosopher, Linguist, Statesman
A beautiful young lady is an act of nature. A beautiful old lady is a work of art.
—Louis Nizer (1902–1994) American Lawyer, Author
The Divine Plan is one of Freedom. The inherent nature of man is ever seeking to express itself in terms of freedom, because freedom is the birthright of every living soul.
—Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) American New Thought Writer, Teacher
To the natural philosopher, there is no natural object unimportant or trifling. From the least of Nature’s works he may learn the greatest lessons.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist
I have lived long enough to satisfy both nature and glory.
—Julius Caesar (c.100–44BCE) Roman Statesman, Military General
I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
A man who lives with nature is used to violence and is companionable with death. There is more violence in an English hedgerow than in the meanest streets of a great city.
—P. D. James (b.1920) British Novelist
Everyone goes to the forest; some go for a walk to be inspired, and others go to cut down the trees.
—Vladimir Horowitz (1904–89) Russian-born American Musician, Composer
What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) English Naturalist
Like Confucius of old, I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life. If there is no other life, then this one has been enough to make it worth being born, myself a human being.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
Nature, who for the perfect maintenance of the laws of her general equilibrium, has sometimes need of vices and sometimes of virtues, inspires now this impulse, now that one, in accordance with what she requires.
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Political leader, Revolutionary, Novelist, Poet, Critic
A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Man is only true to himself when he surpasses the limitations inherent in his nature.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
The experiences of camp life show that a man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even in the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to life.
—Viktor Frankl (1905–97) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist
It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Except for children (who don’t know enough not to ask the important questions), few of us spend time wondering why nature is the way it is.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
Nature arms each man with some faculty which enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other, and thus makes him necessary to society.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods, to save their lives, which infallibly destroy them. This is a reflection made upon observing that there are more thousands killed in a flight, than in a battle; and may be applied to those multitudes of imaginary sick persons that break their constitutions by physic, and throw themselves into the arms of death, by endeavoring to escape it.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
The laws of nature are the rules according to which effects are produced; but there must be a lawgiver — a cause which operates according to these rules. — The laws of navigation never steered a ship, and the law of gravity never moved a planet.
—Thomas Reid (1710–96) Scottish Philosopher, Clergyman
Joy is one of nature’s greatest medicines. Joy is always healthy. A pleasant state of mind tends to bring abnormal conditions back to normal.
—Catherine Ponder (b.1927) American Clergywoman
The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.
—George Washington Carver (1864–1943) American Scientist, Botanist, Educator, Inventor
We do not know, in most cases, how far social failure and success are due to heredity, and how far to environment. But environment is the easier of the two to improve.
—J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) British Biologist, Geneticist
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
—Werner Heisenberg (1901–76) German Theoretical Physicist
I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary notices I have read with pleasure.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
The plastic virtues: purity, unity, and truth, keep nature in subjection.
—Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) Italian-born French Poet, Playwright
Although human subtlety makes a variety of inventions by different means to the same end, it will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
Nature gives all, without reservation, and loses nothing; man or woman, grasping all, loses everything.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
Do not talk about your greatness; you are really, in essential nature, no great than those around you.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I, too, have known autumn too long.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
What nature delivers to us is never stale. Because what nature creates has eternity in it.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–91) Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer
The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking of a tightrope.
—Henri Matisse (1869–1954) French Painter, Sculptor, Lithographer
Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom on the mountains. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The wind will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
—Dolly Parton (b.1946) American Musician, Actress
This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Nature is the art of God.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
The “control of nature” is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and the convenience of man.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Life’s splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Different people have different duties assigned to them by Nature; Nature has given one the power or the desire to do this, the other that. Each bird must sing with his own throat.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Nature does not capriciously scatter her secrets as golden gifts to lazy pets and luxurious darlings, but imposes tasks when she presents opportunities, and uplifts him whom she would inform. The apple that she drops at the feet of Newton is but a coy invitation to follow her to the stars.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–86) American Literary Critic
Nature yields her most profound secrets to the person who is determined to uncover them.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures. All scars she heals, whether in rocks or water or sky or hearts.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
Nature is the master of talents; genius is the master of nature.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
Disease is the retribution of outraged Nature.
—Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Theologian
The darkness of death is like the evening twilight; it makes all objects appear more lovely to the dying.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Come forth into the light of things. Let Nature be your teacher.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
—Richard Feynman (1918–88) American Physicist
Always begin anew with the day, just as nature does. It is one of the sensible things that nature does.
—George Edward Woodberry (1855–1930) American Literary Critic, Poet
Nature’s law affirm instead of prohibit. If you violate her laws, you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman.
—Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American Botanist, Scientist
The ordinary man looking at a mountain is like an illiterate person confronted with a Greek manuscript.
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) English Occultist, Mystic, Magician
If we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a “wandering to find home,” why should we not look forward to the arrival?
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Nature, in her most dazzling aspects or stupendous parts, is but the background and theater of the tragedy of man.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Political Leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist
Nature provides exceptions to every rule.
—Margaret Fuller (1810–50) American Feminist, Writer, Revolutionary
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments—there are consequences.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
There’s no security on this earth, only opportunity.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old well-known air through innumerable variations.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher