Quotes about nature

"Of all the things that oppress me, this sense of the evil working of nature herself --my disgust at her barbarity --clumsiness --darkness --bitter mockery of herself --is the most desolating."

Ruskin, John on nature   

"The sky is the part of creation in which nature has done for the sake of pleasing man."

Ruskin, John on nature   

"Nature, who for the perfect maintenance of the laws of her general equilibrium, has sometimes need of vices and sometimes of virtues, inspires now this impulse, now that one, in accordance with what she requires."

Sade, Marquis De on nature   

"From our earliest hour we have been taught that the thought of the heart, the shaping of the rain-cloud, the amount of wool that grows on a sheep's back, the length of a drought, and the growing of the corn, depend on nothing that moves immutable, at the heart of all things; but on the changeable will of a changeable being, whom our prayers can alter. To us, from the beginning, Nature has been but a poor plastic thing, to be toyed with this way or that, as man happens to please his deity or not; to go to church or not; to say his prayers right or not; to travel on a Sunday or not. Was it possible for us in an instant to see Nature as she is --the flowing vestment of an unchanging reality?"

Schreiner, Olive on nature   

"If you live according to the dictates of nature, you will never be poor; if according to the notions of man, you will never be rich."

Seneca on nature   

"Only nature knows how to justly proportion to the fault the punishment it deserves."

Shelley, Percy Bysshe on nature   

"See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all."

Socrates on nature   

"Nature in America has always been suspect, on the defensive, cannibalized by progress. In America, every specimen becomes a relic."

Sontag, Susan on nature   

"Man is a complex being; he makes the deserts bloom and lakes die."

Stern, Gil on nature   

"The sun will set without thy assistance."

Talmud, The on nature   

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"I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence?"

Thomson, James on nature   

"We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces freshets. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander."

Thoreau, Henry David on nature   

"However much you knock at nature's door, she will never answer you in comprehensible words."

Turgenev, Ivan on nature   

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"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."

Twain, Mark on nature
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"Our task is not to rediscover nature but to remake it."

Vaneigem, Raoul on nature   

"The law cannot equalize mankind in spite of nature."

Vauvenargues, Marquis De on nature   

"After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on -- have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear -- what remains? Nature remains."

Whitman, Walt on nature   

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars."

Whitman, Walt on nature   

"She seemed a thing that could not feel the touch of earthly years."

Wordsworth, William on nature   

"Nature never did betray the heart that loved her."

Wordsworth, William on nature
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"For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity."

Wordsworth, William on nature   

"Nature, by its very nature, is very brutal and unequal. However, Man has somehow managed to transform the nature of its brutality and inequality."

Joshi, Kedar on nature   

"When you have poison oak you love nature a little less."

Lipsey, Michael on nature   

"Man kind is the master piece of this world of perfection."

Gil, Fausto on nature   

"Between you and this world there is only room for greatness."

Gil, Fausto on nature   

"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life."

Hesse, Hermann on nature   

"When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it. "

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on nature