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
Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
As long as I retain my feeling and my passion for Nature, I can partly soften or subdue my other passions and resist or endure those of others.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
To realize your true nature, you must wait for the right moment and the right conditions. When the time comes, you are awakened as if from a dream. You understand that what you have found is your own and doesn’t come from anywhere outside.
—Buddhist Teaching
Nature is the master of talents; genius is the master of nature.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
Hill and valley, seas and constellations, are but stereotypes of divine ideas appealing to, and answered by the living soul of man.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
A cheery relaxation is man’s natural state, just as nature itself is relaxed. A waterfall is concerned only with being itself, not with doing something it considers waterfall-like.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
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
The ignorant man marvels at the exceptional; the wise man marvels at the common; the greatest wonder of all is the regularity of nature.
—George Boardman the Younger (1801–31) American Baptist Minister
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
I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
If only nature is real and if, in nature, only desire and destruction are legitimate, then, in that all humanity does not suffice to assuage the thirst for blood, the path of destruction must lead to universal annihilation.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
All nature is a vast symbolism; every material fact has sheathed within it a spiritual truth.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Nature is what you may do. There is much you may not do.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I am at two with nature.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
Nature surpasses nurture.
—Common Proverb
The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still slowly ripen a fruit tree, as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.
—Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian Astronomer, Physicist, Mathematician
There can be no very black misery to him who lives in the midst of Nature and has his senses still.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
For example, there is a species of butterfly, a night-moth, in which the females are much less common than the males. The moths breed exactly like all animals, the male fertilizes the female and the female lays the eggs. Now, if you take a female night moth—-many naturalists have tried this experiment—the male moths will visit this female at night and they will come from hours away. From hours away! Just think! From a distance of several miles all these males sense the only female in the region. One looks for an explanation for this phenomenon but it is not easy. You must assume that they have a sense of smell of some sort like a hunting dog that can pick up and follow a semmingly imperceptible scent. Do you see? Nature abounds with such inexplicable things. But my argument is: if the female moths were as abundant as the males, the latter would not have such a highly developed sense of smell. They’ve acquired it only because they had to train themseleves to to have it. If a person were to concentrate all his will power on a certain end, then he would achieve it. That’s all. And that also answers your question. Examine a person closely enough and you know more about him than he does himself.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
Study nature as the countenance of God.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
Those who have lived a good life do not fear death, but meet it calmly, and even long for it in the face of great suffering. But those who do not have a peaceful conscience, dread death as though life means nothing but physical torment. The challenge is to live our life so that we will be prepared for death when it comes.
—Unknown
Nature, time and patience are the three great physicians.
—Common Proverb
Those who live are those who fight.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Nature goes on her way, and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
An old Apache storyteller reminds us: “The plants, rocks, fire, water, all are alive. They watch us and see our needs. They see when we have nothing to protect us, and it is then that they reveal themselves and speak to us.”
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
Complete adaptation to environment means death. The essential point in all response is the desire to control environment.
—John Dewey (1859–1952) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator
I never saw a man who looked with such a wistful eye upon that little tent of blue which prisoners call the sky.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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 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
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
What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
The laws of nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the laws of man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the laws of nature,—were man as unerring in his judgments as nature.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
The rich mind lies in the sun and sleeps, and is Nature.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
There is but one book for genius – nature.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
Touching the earth equates to having harmony with nature.
—American Indian Proverb
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
The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Nature and wisdom always say the same.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman 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
Nature goes her own way and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
All human beings, by nature, desire to know.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Art may make a suite of clothes, but nature must produce a man.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
They are much to be pitied who have not been … given a taste for nature early in life.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
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
For the sword outwears its sheath, and the soul wears out the breast. And the heart must pause to breathe, and love itself have rest.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet