Nature Quotes Note: I don't claim to agree with every philosophy espoused herein!
"Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another."
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Nature is the art of God.
--Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682). Religio Medici. Part i. sect. xvi.
But who can paint
Like Nature? Can imagination boast,
Amid its gay creation, hues like hers?--James Tomson (1700-1748). The Seasons. Spring. Line 465.
To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language.William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878). Thanatopsis.
Go forth under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings.Ibid.
That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400) The Knight's Tale. Line 1524.
Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) History.
Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Compensation.
If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did."
Jack Handey
"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."
Voltaire
"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."
Frank Lloyd Wright:
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."
John Muir
"Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment"
R. Buckminster Fuller:
"Nature's Laws are the invisible government of the earth."
Alfred A. Montapert
Horses have a frog in each hoof -- a thoughtful provision of nature, enabling them to shine in a hurdle race.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911
OUT-OF-DOORS, n. That part of one's environment upon which no government has been able to collect taxes. Chiefly useful to inspire poets.
I climbed to the top of a mountain one day
To see the sun setting in glory,
And I thought, as I looked at his vanishing ray,
Of a perfectly splendid story.
'Twas about an old man and the ass he bestrode
Till the strength of the beast was o'ertested;
Then the man would carry him miles on the road
Till Neddy was pretty well rested.
The moon rising solemnly over the crest
Of the hills to the east of my station
Displayed her broad disk to the darkening west
Like a visible new creation.
And I thought of a joke (and I laughed till I cried)
Of an idle young woman who tarried
About a church-door for a look at the bride,
Although 'twas herself that was married.
To poets all Nature is pregnant with grand
Ideas -- with thought and emotion.
I pity the dunces who don't understand
The speech of earth, heaven and ocean.
Stromboli SmithAmbrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911
The human race has been fascinated by sharks for as long as I can remember.Just like the bluebird feeding its young, or the spider struggling to weave its per- fect web, or the buttercup blooming in spring, the shark reveals to us yet another of the infinite and wonderful facets of nature, namely the facet that it can bite your head off. This causes us humans to feel a certain degree of awe.
Dave Barry, "The Wonders of Sharks on TV":
"Every generation thinks it has the answers, and every generation is humbled by nature."
Phillip Lubin
"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
Anne Bradstreet, "Meditations Divine and Moral," 1655
"Every year, back come Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants."
Dorothy Parker
"If you've seen one Redwood tree, you've seen them all"
-Forestry expert Ronald Reagan
"If you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait a few minutes."
``The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need to do is set our sails."
-Ramakrishna
"Nobody sees a flower, really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time."
-Georgia O'Keefe