I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
In nature nothing can be given. All things are sold.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
I think I could turn and live with the animals. They are so placid and self-contained. They do not sweat and whine about their condition. Not one is dissatisfied. Not one is demented with the mania of owning things. Not one is disrespectful or unhappy over the world.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Let us beware of saying there are laws in nature. There are only necessities: there is no one to command, no one to obey, no one to transgress. When you realize there are no goals or objectives, then you realize, too, that there is no chance: for only in a world of objectives does the word “chance” have any meaning.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The sky is the part of creation in which nature has done for the sake of pleasing man.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
The mountains, the forest, and the sea, render men savage; they develop the fierce, but yet do not destroy the human.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.
—Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) 39th US President, Humanitarian
The guy who wrote “A job well done never needs doing again” never weeded a garden.
—Anonymous
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
The mountains are fountains of men as well as of rivers, of glaciers, of fertile soil. The great poets, philosophers, prophets, able men whose thought and deeds have moved the world, have come down from the mountains.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
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
Rain is good for vegetables, and for the animals who eat those vegetables, and for the animals who eat those animals.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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 look upon all creatures equally; none are less dear to me and none more dear. But those who worship me with love live in me, and I come to life in them.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
The miracles of nature do not seem miracles because they are so common. If no one had ever seen a flower, even a dandelion would be the most startling event in the world.
—Unknown
Nature is man’s teacher. She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence.
—Alfred Billings Street (1811–81) American Poet, Librarian
Time is the quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once. Lately, it doesn’t seem to be working.
—Anonymous
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
Everything in nature contains all the powers of nature. Every thing is made of one hidden stuff.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Nature takes no account of even the most reasonable of human excuses.
—Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970) American Writer, Critic, Naturalist
We fly to beauty as an asylum from the terrors of finite nature.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Through art we express our conception of what nature is not.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
Nature imitates herself. A grain thrown into good ground brings forth fruit; a principle thrown into a good mind brings forth fruit. Everything is created and conducted by the same Master,—the root, the branch, the fruits,—the principles, the consequences.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
All nature is but art, unknown to thee; all chance, direction which thou canst net see; all discord, harmony not understood; all partial evil, universal good.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
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