When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
An unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
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
Art may make a suite of clothes, but nature must produce a man.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need”. It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment—not discouragement—you will find the strength there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege!! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures, followed by wreckage, were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
Life is not so much a matter of position as of disposition
—Unknown
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
A cloudy day, or a little sunshine, have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most real blessings or misfortunes.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Our reality is influenced by our notions about reality, regardless of the nature of those notions.
—Joseph Chilton Pearce (1926–2016) American Author
Take life as you find it, but don’t leave it that way
—Indian Proverb
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
He who keeps the hills, burns the wood; he who keeps the streams drinks the water.
—Chinese Proverb
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
Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
Never make your appeal to a man’s better nature; he may not have one. Always make your appeal to his self-interest.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
Nature provides exceptions to every rule.
—Margaret Fuller (1810–50) American Feminist, Writer, Revolutionary
The best fertilizer is the owner’s footprint.
—U.S. Proverb
However much you knock at nature’s door, she will never answer you in comprehensible words.
—Ivan Turgenev (1818–83) Russian Novelist, Playwright
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
Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
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
Nature is the armory of genius. Cities serve it poorly, books and colleges at second hand; the eye craves the spectacle of the horizon; of mountain, ocean, river and plain, the clouds and stars; actual contact with the elements, sympathy with the seasons as they rise and roll.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
Your nature is truth, and when you oppose it, you don’t feel like yourself. Stress never feels as natural as peace does.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Nature does nothing uselessly.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The whole secret of the study of nature lies in learning how to use one’s eyes.
—George Sand (1804–76) French Novelist, Dramatist
Study nature as the countenance of God.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s head.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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
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
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