Alfred Austin: Quotes about nature

Alfred Austin was British writer and poet. Explore interesting quotes on nature.
Alfred Austin: 112   quotes 1   like

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.”

Alfred Austin

Source: As quoted in Growing with the Seasons (2008) by Frank & Vicky Giannangelo, p. 115., and one or two other gardening books, as well as on various internet gardening sites and lists of quotations. However, it is sometimes attributed to Voltaire, and about one-third of the time it is quoted without attribution (at times even without quotation marks). It is not to be found in Austin's The Garden That I Love or any of its five sequels.

Soul , Nature , Sun , Heart

“Once learn how Nature gardens for herself, and you will be able to spare yourself a good deal of trouble.”

Alfred Austin

Source: The Garden That I Love (1894), p. 22.

Learning , Nature

“If Nature built by rule and square,
Than man what wiser would she be?
What wins us is her careless care,
And sweet unpunctuality.”

Alfred Austin

Source: "Nature and the Book", stanza XVII; p. 68, At the Gate of the Convent (1885)

Nature

“Doth Nature draw me, 'tis because,
Unto my seeming, there doth lurk
A lawlessness about her laws,
More mood than purpose in her work.”

Alfred Austin

Source: "Nature and the Book", stanza XV; p. 67, At the Gate of the Convent (1885)

Drawing , Law , Nature , Mood

“Know, Nature, like the cuckoo, laughs at law,
Placing her eggs in whatso nest she will.”

Alfred Austin

Source: Savonarola (1881), Lorenzo de' Medici in Act I, sc. i; p. 14.

Law , Nature

“Imagination should
A reconciler, not a rebel, be,
To teach the heart of man to apprehend
Nature's vicissitudes, and bear his own,
With sympathetic fancy.”

Alfred Austin

Source: Fortunatus the Pessimist (1892), Urania in Act IV, sc. ii; p. 178.

Imagination , Heart , Nature

“[T]here is no gardening without humility, an assiduous willingness to learn, and a cheerful readiness to admit that you were mistaken. Nature is continually sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.”

Alfred Austin

Source: The Garden That I Love (1894), p. 13.

Learning , Nature