“What do we plant when we plant a tree?
A thousand things that we daily see,
We plant the spire that out-towers the crag,
We plant the staff for our country's flag;
We plant the shade from the hot sun free,
We plant all these when we plant the tree.”

What do we plant when we plant a tree?

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What do we plant when we plant a tree? A thousand things that we daily see, We plant the spire that out-towers the cr…" by Henry Abbey?
Henry Abbey photo
Henry Abbey 4
American poet 1842–1911

Related quotes

Albert Pike photo

“To plant the trees that, after we are dead, shall shelter our children, is as natural as to love the shade of those our fathers planted.”

Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. XIX : Grand Pontiff, p. 312
Context: The true Mason labors for the benefit of those that are to come after him, and for the advancement and improvement of his race. That is a poor ambition which contents itself within the limits of a single life. All men who deserve to live, desire to survive their funerals, and to live afterward in the good that they have done mankind, rather than in the fading characters written in men's memories. Most men desire to leave some work behind them that may outlast their own day and brief generation. That is an instinctive impulse, given by God, and often found in the rudest human heart; the surest proof of the soul's immortality, and of the fundamental difference between man and the wisest brutes. To plant the trees that, after we are dead, shall shelter our children, is as natural as to love the shade of those our fathers planted.

Chinua Achebe photo
Thornton Wilder photo
Roald Amundsen photo

“So we arrived, and planted our flag at the geographical South Pole. Thanks be to God!”

Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) Norwegian polar researcher, who was the first to reach the South Pole

A quote also displayed at the geographical South Pole.

“The past has brought us both ashes and diamonds. In the present we find the flowers of what we've planted and the seeds of what we are becoming. I plant the seeds of love in my heart. I plant the seeds of love in the hearts of others.”

Julia Cameron (1948) American writer

Blessings (1998)
Context: When I listen to love, I am listening to my true nature. When I express love, I am expressing my true nature. All of us love. All of us do it more and more perfectly. The past has brought us both ashes and diamonds. In the present we find the flowers of what we've planted and the seeds of what we are becoming. I plant the seeds of love in my heart. I plant the seeds of love in the hearts of others.

N. R. Narayana Murthy photo
Théodore Guérin photo

“As to our garden and yard, we have all the woods. And the wilderness is our only cloister, for our house is like an oak tree planted therein.”

Théodore Guérin (1798–1856) Catholic saint and nun from France

First Journal of Travel (1840)

Desmond Tutu photo

“We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner
Samuel Butler photo

Related topics