Nature Quotes


You can tell the nature of the man by the words he chooses.
– Edwin Louis Cole

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.
– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!
– Edward Abbey
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
– Edward Abbey
Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.
– Diane Ackerman
Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
– John Acton
To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.
– Ansel Adams
Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.
– Ansel Adams
In plain words, Chaos was the law of nature Order was the dream of man.
– Henry B. Adams
All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.
– John Adams
Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.
– Joseph Addison
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
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
– Joseph Addison
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.
– Joseph Addison
There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.
– Joseph Addison
To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
– Joseph Addison
As the poet said, 'Only God can make a tree,' probably because it's so hard to figure out how to get the bark on.
– Woody Allen
I am two with nature.
– Woody Allen
He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.
– Henri Frederic Amiel
None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.
– Marian Anderson
By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.
– Saint Thomas Aquinas
Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient.
– Saint Thomas Aquinas
By its very nature the beautiful is isolated from everything else. From beauty no road leads to reality.
– Hannah Arendt
It is in the very nature of things human that every act that has once made its appearance and has been recorded in the history of mankind stays with mankind as a potentiality long after its actuality has become a thing of the past.
– Hannah Arendt
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way.
– Aristotle
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
– Aristotle
Man is by nature a political animal.
– Aristotle
The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.
– Aristotle
To insult someone we call him bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, human might be the greater insult.
– Isaac Asimov
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
– Saint Augustine
Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.
– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.
– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.
– Jane Austen
To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.
– Jane Austen
The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.
– Alfred Austin
There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.
– Alfred Austin
Gossip is nature's telephone.
– Sholom Aleichem
Nature never makes any blunders, when she makes a fool she means it.
– Archibald Alexander
Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
– Hans Christian Andersen
Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.
– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.
– Sir Francis Bacon
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
– Sir Francis Bacon
Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.
– Sir Francis Bacon
The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.
– Sir Francis Bacon
We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.
– Sir Francis Bacon
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
– Walter Bagehot
It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body; for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse.
– David Bailey
Disease is the retribution of outraged Nature.
– Hosea Ballou
Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.
– Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business.
– Dave Barry
Nature... is nothing but the inner voice of self-interest.
– Charles Baudelaire
Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.
– Standing Bear
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
– Henry Ward Beecher
Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.
– Henry Ward Beecher
To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary, nature, study and practice.
– Henry Ward Beecher
Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
– Henry Ward Beecher
Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills.
– Ambrose Bierce
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
– William Blake
A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.
– Hal Borland
You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet.
– Hal Borland
Tears are nature's lotion for the eyes. The eyes see better for being washed by them.
– Christian Nestell Bovee
We trifle when we assign limits to our desires, since nature hath set none.
– Christian Nestell Bovee
Breathless, we flung us on a windy hill, Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass.
– Rupert Brooke
The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.
– Phillip Brooks
Every man should follow the bent of his nature in art and letters, always provided that he does not offend against the rules of morality and good taste.
– Thomas Edward Brown
All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God.
– Sir Thomas Browne
The groves were God's first temples.
– William C. Bryant
Love thou the rose, yet leave it on its stem.
– Edward Bulwer-Lytton
No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.
– Edward Bulwer-Lytton
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.
– Edmund Burke
There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.
– Edmund Burke
We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.
– Edmund Burke
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
– John Burroughs
Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.
– John Burroughs
I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.
– Leo Buscaglia
Self-preservation is the first law of nature.
– Samuel Butler
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
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
– Lord Byron
Look out into the universe and contemplate the glory of God. Observe the stars, millions of them, twinkling in the night sky, all with a message of unity, part of the very nature of God.
– Sai Baba
Man seeks to change the foods available in nature to suit his tastes, thereby putting an end to the very essence of life contained in them.
– Sai Baba
Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger.
– Saint Basil
Play what you enjoy! Try and find your own musical identity.
– Walter Becker
What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt - it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else.
– Hal Boyle
For every person who has ever lived there has come, at last, a spring he will never see. Glory then in the springs that are yours.
– Pam Brown
Winter is nature's way of saying, Up yours.
– Robert Byrne
The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation.
– John Cage
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
– Albert Camus
Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.
– Albert Camus
If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.
– Thomas Carlyle
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
– Dale Carnegie
Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.
– Jimmy Carter
I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
– George Washington Carver
Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.
– George Washington Carver
I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
– Willa Cather
Great art picks up where nature ends.
– Marc Chagall
When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.
– Sebastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort
Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.
– Coco Chanel