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
There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave, and severe; it is always in the right, and the faults and errors fall to our share. It defies incompetency, but reveals its secrets to the competent, the truthful, and the pure.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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
Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
Everything in nature contains all the powers of nature. Every thing is made of one hidden stuff.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
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
Death is a shadow that always follows the body.
—English Proverb
All nature is a vast symbolism; every material fact has sheathed within it a spiritual truth.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Let Nature have her way; she understands her business better than we do.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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
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
Life would be stunted and narrow if we could feel no significance in the world around us beyond that which can be weighed and measured with the tools of the physicist or described by the metrical symbols of the mathematician.
—Arthur Eddington (1882–1944) English Astronomer
Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
All nature wears one universal grin.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
Warm summer sun, shine kindly here. Warm southern wind, blow softly here. Green sod above, lie light, lie light. Good night, dear Heart, Good night, good night.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Looks through nature up to nature’s God.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Thou hast existed as a part; thou shalt disappear into that which produced thee. This, too, nature wills. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature and end thy journey in content, just as the olive falls when it is ripe, thanking the tree on which it grew and blessing the nature that gave it birth.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
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
If the wife sins, the husband is not innocent.
—Italian Proverb
In nature nothing can be given. All things are sold.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The law of nature is the strictest expression of necessity.
—Unknown
Thought is cause: experience is effect. If you don’t like the effects in your life, you have to change the nature of your thinking.
—Marianne Williamson (b.1952) American Activist, Author, Lecturer
A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
I believe in God and in nature and in the triumph of good over evil.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
There is but one book for genius – nature.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
—Samuel Butler
Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German 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
We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understanding and our hearts.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Nature is a frugal mother, and never gives without measure. When she has work to do, she qualifies men for that and sends them equipped.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I have come to see the nonsense of trying to describe fine scenery.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Pity those who nature abuses; never those who abuse nature.
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) Irish-born British Playwright, Poet, Elected Rep
My life is a battle.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
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
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
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
This is the foundation of all. We are not to imagine or suppose, but to discover, what nature does or may be made to do.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
What is more gentle than a wind in summer?
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
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
To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
All men are poets at heart. They serve nature for bread, but her loveliness overcomes them sometimes.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
In the fields and woods more than anything else all things come to those who wait, because all things are on the move, and are sure sooner or later to come your way. To absorb a thing is better than to learn it, and we absorb what we enjoy. We learn things at school; we absorb them in the fields and woods. When we look upon Nature with fondness and appreciation, she meets us halfway and takes a deeper hold on us than when studiously conned. Hence I say the way of knowledge of Nature is the way of love and enjoyment, and is more surely found in the open air than in the school room or the laboratory.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Nature and wisdom always say the same.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Come forth into the light of things. Let Nature be your teacher.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet